I Still Have Hope That Society’s Acceptance Of ‘ALL’ Is Still Possible…
Posted by Michelle Moquin on December 13th, 2009
Just when you have hope that the world is changing…just when you think the world is progressing and becoming more accepting of all, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni decides to go draconian by approving an anti-gay Bill that was introduced.
While perusing the net, I stumbled upon this article that gives me hope…hope that society’s acceptance of all is still possible….that world citizenship is attainable. But oh…we have a lot of work to do.
Note: Click through to read the entire column that Jim Burroway is speaking of if you’re interested.
Op-Ed In Ugandan Gov’t Newspaper: “Parliament Should Not Pass This Bill”
Jim Burroway
December 11th, 2009
This is not the sort of column one would expect to find in the Ugandan government-owned New Vision. It’s by John Nagenda, a senior advisor to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. After the usual paragraphs to establish his personal disdain for all things gay (this is something of a ritual in Uganda for anyone who is about to say something remotely positive for LGBT people), Nagenda writes:
And that is where same-sex lovers’ haters will do their nut! The recent month I was away a parliamentarian introduced a Bill of hugely draconian measure, including heavy penalties on those who wouldn’t report same-sex lovers they knew about! In the US there was a man whose name, McCarthy, is now a synonym (as mccarthyism) for cruel witch-hunting. For him Communism was the hot issue, although he would doubtless have looked at same-sex love as a product of that political system.
In the Inquisition period, evil prelates tortured people who deviated from current beliefs, including by saying the world was not flat but round! Now we all laugh about these odd characters. Lower down the scale, people were tortured for being left-handed (indeed called sinister for it) or being very short, or being blind: in short for not being normal. I believe, and I am raising the bar, that we must laugh at this MP and others like him: laugh and stay sane. What crime have same-sex lovers committed, per se, by being who they are? Would those who believe God made mankind exclude them, and on what grounds?
Nagenda goes on to talk about the pace of change for LGBT people — his take-it-excruciatingly-slow advice obviously comes from someone who has little understanding of what it’s like to live in such an oppressive society. But he ends on this point:
When times have changed, if they change enough, then these words will include a leavening of same-sex relationships. Gradualism is not a sin. But hunting down people for same-sex love, I believe to be a sin, against Love, one of God’s greatest gifts to mankind. (I say all this without being a homosexual.) Parliament should not pass this Bill.
This follows another possible trial balloon seen floating on the official governmental Ugandan Media Centre web site this week. When New Vision picks up on the same theme, something is likely afoot.
Readers: Let’s hope john Nagenda’s voice is strong, and President Yoweri Museveni listens to his advice. Like I said, I still have hope. ’Progress’ is a ‘work in progress’. Comments? If you have anything to say, say it here. Blog me.
Al: I am doing fairly well, thanks for asking. How are you? We watched “Its A Wonderful Life’ last night. One of my favorite Christmas movies. Every time I see it, I am profoundly affected in a different way than the last time. I guess the jewels I discover all depend on where I am in my life at the time I see it.
Have a great Sunday everyone.
Gratefully your blog host,
michelle
Aka BABE: Your Bad Ass Bitch Editor
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December 14th, 2009 at 8:39 am
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