"In an attempt to determine the cause of my sexual variance, a dentist once asked me if there were witches in my family. In addition to my dentist's unwelcome inquiries, I've had my house set on fire, had several demands for invasive body searches as a prerequisite for job interviews and church membership, and lost a job due to slanderous media coverage about my sexuality."Homosexuality is already punishable in Uganda with up to 14 years of prison, but if a new controversial bill becomes law, HIV-positive gay men could receive death penalty for a capital crime of "aggravated homosexuality." The bill, introduced last October, would also legalize jailing of those who are aware of homosexual activity, but don't report it. As more gay men start choosing to hide under the masks of heterosexuality and marry/date women while having sex with men, AIDS and HIV-prevention groups fear the bill would impede their efforts even more than the current oppression of gay Ugandans already does. To make matters worse, the U.S. and U.N. AIDS and HIV programs don't offer any buffer to special projects aimed at helping the gay community.
These complications are addressed in depth in this Time article, which also points out that the idea of this bill effectively originated with American evangelical missionaries, including the infamous California Saddleback Church Pastor Rick Warren. As it commonly does, the human rights issue is becoming intricately interlaced with religious overtones. Warren has since asserted that the right of free choice is God-given, but immediately distanced himself, his Church and effectively religion from the issue by proclaiming the problem political.
In her latest column in the Washington Post, Kathleen Parker spotlights how supportive the U.S. has appeared of Uganda's gay rights activists officially and in theory -- but how distanced and even destructive it has been de facto. As the U.S. LGBT community fights for its civil rights here, how could one bridge a gap between their efforts and those of gay rights activists in Uganda, who find themselves standing up for such a fundamental human right as the right to life? Is there one even? And if even the Ugandan president claims to not be able to influence the outcome of the vote on the bill, whose responsibility is it to protect human rights of gay Ugandans? Are human rights even at stake here--who can and can't decide what qualifies as a capital crime?
This is a really interesting (and challenging) series of questions you pose. As I read it, I couldn't help but think about our class discussion of Richard Rorty and his theory of advancing the human rights movement by expanding our sense of sympathy with those we might initially think are unlike us. Do you think that would be helpful here or would something more objective about people -- like Perry or Gewirth are trying to highlight -- be effective? Or, as you ask, is it even possible for people of different cultures/communities to agree on whether there is a human rights violation in the offing here?
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