2/6/10

Support House (H.R. 1064) and Senate (S.R. 409) bills condemning the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill


U.S. Citizens: Contact your representatives in Congress »

Non U.S. Citizens: Contact key Congresspeople »

Background
In Uganda, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 was introduced in Parliament last October. The bill targets lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans, their advocates, and those that know someone LGBT. It would reaffirm existing penalties for homosexuality and introduce sweeping new criminal provisions. Some of these troubling provisions include: imprisonment for life for anyone convicted of the "offence of homosexuality;" punishment for the "promotion of homosexuality" with prison terms; imprisonment for up to three years for anyone who fails to report to the authorities LGBT people or LGBT human rights defenders they know; and most egregiously, the application of the death penalty to anyone in Uganda who has consensual same-sex relations repeatedly or who has consensual same-sex relations and is HIV positive. If this bill were to pass, it would be a devastating blow to the human rights of all Ugandans and would significantly impede effective HIV prevention and care.


This week in the U.S., a bipartisan group of members of Congress proposed resolutions condemning the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The House resolution, H.R. 1064, sponsored by Howard Berman (D-CA) and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), received thirty-nine cosponsors. The Senate resolution, S.R. 409, sponsored by Russ Feingold (D-WI) and Tom Coburn (R-OK), currently has four co-sponsors. The House resolution extends beyond Uganda to call on all nations to reject laws that criminalize homosexuality.


Public pressure is needed to ensure that both resolutions come up for a vote. Condemnation by the U.S. government is one of many factors that could persuade Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to prevent the bill from becoming law. If the resolutions pass, the U.S. Congress will join President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in sending the government of Uganda a unified message that passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill will have serious consequences to its relationships internationally.


U.S. Citizens: Contact your representatives in Congress »


Non U.S. Citizens: Contact key Congresspeople »



2/4/10

YouTube President Obama addresses National Prayer Breakfast





President Obama speaks out about the proposed Ugandan anti gay legislation: source: Truths wins out-TWO:

“We may disagree about gay marriage, but surely we can agree that it is unconscionable to target gays and lesbians for who they are — whether it’s here in the United States or, as Hillary mentioned, more extremely in odious laws that are being proposed most recently in Uganda.”

Two Truth Wins Out press release

2/3/10

The Ugandan Frankenstein We Have Helped To Create

Cross posted from Walking with Integrity

By The Rev. Canon Albert Ogle, Vice President for National and International Affairs, Integrity USA.

Last week's meeting between the Episcopal Church’s Presiding Bishop, Archbishop of Canterbury and United Nations Secretary General talked about everything important to people of faith, except one glaring omission, Uganda. Even though the Church of Canada’s House of Bishops, faith leaders in Europe and the international human rights community have all come out condemning the proposed anti-homosexuality bill being discussed by the Ugandan parliament, we have yet to have a definitive statement on this important issue from either Archbishop Rowan Williams or the Anglican Observer at the United Nations, Helen Grace Wangusa, (who is originally from Uganda). Why the silence?

The first priority of the Anglican Communion’s Observer’s work is to ensure the commitment of the faith community within Anglicanism for the implementation of the Declaration of Human Rights. “A cross thematic area to ensure all policies adhere to the Declaration of Human Rights for the protection of the dignity of the rights of every individual in the world” as the website reports. Yesterday was a missed opportunity!

When Archbishop Livingstone Nkoyoyo, former Anglican Archbishop of Uganda returned home following the 1998 Lambeth Conference, he made sure to tell a press conference at Entebbe Airport that the Anglican Communion was behind him and President Musevene to extend hasher laws on homosexuality. In concert with his bishops (who influence one third of the population of Uganda and a higher proportion of government ministers and Uganda’s elite) the Archbishop began a crusade against Ugandan homosexuals blaming western and particularly Episcopal Church influence. This was clearly unfounded a lie. With a Bush White House and greater financial influence from American fundamentalists, the movement to misrepresent the Anglican Church’s position on homosexuality created a Frankenstein. Nkoyoyo said nothing about either the listening process, the need to condemn homophobia and violence against LGBT people and extending pastoral care, all recommendations to the world wide Anglican family contained in Resolution 1:10. He also never mentioned Resolution I: I, committing to uphold the Declaration of Human Rights. The Church of Uganda was never publicly reprimanded by the Anglican Communion Office or the Archbishop of Canterbury, or indeed any significant body of peer bishops for their misuse. Silence equals endorsement.

When the history of this sad chapter in the life of the church is written, we may discover that Anglicans are the architects of this monster, now manifested in Uganda and about to spread to other parts of the African church. Later, leaders like Rick Warren and Exodus international would bring their own distinctive body parts to this new creation.

On 17th February, Pastor Martin Ssempa is threatening to bring one million angry Ugandans on to the streets of Kampala to show Musevene’s government that “God fearing Christians” want no leniency for their gay and lesbian brothers and sisters. Musevene is now caught between the unanimous outcry of the international community and even the Vatican against this further violation of human rights, and the Frankenstein we have helped to create. We can trace some of the growing hostility to the gay community last year when Exodus International and other American fundamentalist leaders held conferences and meetings to encourage Ssempa and his Christian fascism to continue their rein of terror and threats. Musevene, as an Anglican leader, whose government was courted and bribed by the fundamentalist Christian lobby, also shares in creating a monster that is about to turn on him. I once met a gay Ugandan in the middle 1990’s who told me Musevene had threatened to gun anyone down on the streets who even dared to celebrate gay pride. Fifteen years later, there will be a different demonstration and the threat of gunning them down will not work this time. When a young democracy like Uganda neglects the role and place of its minorities, as Musevene has done for 20 years with the support of the United States government, Ssempa and Bahati, (the author of the bill) become a manifestation of a deep illness that is within this society.

As with the Rwandan genocide, once the fear, hatred and dehumanization of any population has taken root, there is not much rational and inclusive citizens or the international community can do to change the course of a potential blood bath. When we looked back on the causes of the Rwandan genocide, one of the main forces that created the climate of destruction was the Christian Churches. There is clear evidence that without the years of preaching, using communications and media networks and the organization of the churches in particular, the genocide of 600,000 people could not have happened. The Catholic Church denied its role and the Pope commented that because a “few bad apples” were involved in some horrific events, the institutional church could not be blamed. Similarly the Anglican Communion was largely silent about our participation in the genocide and a few Rwandan bishops escaped To Uganda and Kenya who were accused of helping to mastermind local atrocities and informing the mobs about where terrified groups were hiding in sanctuary-often in there churches. The then Archbishop of Canterbury did not call for an ecclesiastical inquiry or demand bishops be tried by their peers or court. His office and the office of the Anglican Communion largely remained silent and the focus shifted to rebuilding the infrastructure and leadership of the Rwandan church without any significant reflection on our corporate role in creating this former Frankenstein. I have friends working in Rwanda and many of these issues are still to be resolved. Every 25 years, we can anticipate the build up of animosity, fear and intimidation that are largely religiously condoned. Rwanda is about to introduce it’s own form of the anti-gay bill and President Kagame, (a close friend of Rick Warren) is Musevene’s former Defense Minister. As the “Purpose Driven Country”, Rwanda and Uganda shares the same moral vision and a common hatred for gays. Rick Warren’s recent “Letter to the Pastor’s of Uganda” was a brave attempt to put the cork back in the bottle and to distance himself from something that his movement has helped to create. But the genii has escaped. Frankenstein will be marching on the streets of Kampala on 17th February, in all its frightening monstrosity and carrying a very large Bible.

If a million Ugandans take to the streets on February 17th, one third of them are probably Anglicans who will be calling for death to gays and fines and imprisonment for those who minister to them. Some of our Anglican bishops may also support the demonstration. For the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church not to make a statement on this potential crisis in the modern human rights movement, knowing we helped to create this madness, is still a mystery to me. Maybe they are doing a “Rick Warren” and making sure the Church truly distances itself from this ugly situation. It won’t work.

History can help us make sense of the present, if we allow it to. Rwanda is a reminder, that leadership, and religious leadership in particular, has a remarkable way of inciting the crowd and then when things get a little out of hand, to be silent, or in Rick Warren’s case, to make a video. Like Pilate, the sweet smell of Orange blossom soap ensures the blood of the innocent and the vulnerable will not soil our hands. Rwanda is also a reminder that our religious leadership can be struck silent at any moment when there is something important that could have said. Clinton apologized as a secular leader, we did not. Recent Christian history from this troubled region also teaches us that the silence is usually followed by an extended state of amnesia. We forget what we helped to create. Every Anglican bishop who voted on the 1998 Lambeth Resolution bears the corporate and institutional responsibility for what is happening in Uganda right now as human dignity and emerging democracy is diminished in the name of Christ. As the inheritors of the institutions who helped get us into this mess, both Primates need to break your very loud silence.

** From the Rev. Canon Albert Ogle: " Though Integrity supports and welcomes the Presiding Bishop's comments in December, it was a missed opportunity for her not to have publically raised the Episcopal Church's concerns at this high level UN meeting in January. This was the perfect opportunity for her to encourage the Archbishop of Canterbury and the UN Anglican Communion Observer to finally address the violation of human rights in Uganda and the misuse of Lambeth Resolutions by the Anglican Church in Uganda. Integrity feels this remains an important and critical issue for many respected leaders in the international and faith community that it ought to have been addressed specifically at this meeting."

--
Posted By Louise Brooks to Walking With Integrity at 2/03/2010 03:25:00 PM

Uganda Protest Thurs./5:30 PM/JFK Building, Gov't Center, Boston Mass.

Local Protest Targets Nat’l Prayer Breakfast Organizers’ Ties to Anti-Gay Bill in Uganda
Boston LGBT activists will gather in front of the John F. Kennedy Federal Building at 5:30 PM today to decry American fundamentalists’ export of their recycled homophobia to Africa. The secretive right-wing network so-called “The Family,” which sponsors this morning’s National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, is linked to the notorious Anti-Homosexuality Bill (“AHB”) pending in the Ugandan Parliament; a measure which would intensify existing persecution of LGBT people in the East African country. See http://www.facebook.com/l/a9dad;www.religiondispatches.org/archive/sexandgender/2250/religious_leaders_urge_obama_to_condemn_ugandan_anti-gay_bill_at_prayer_breakfast “The Family,” which attracted notoriety when two of its leaders—Sen. John Ensign of Nevada and Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina—confessed to adultery last year, was the subject of an exposé by author Jeff Sharlet.

Among the speakers at the protest will be the Rev. Kapya Kaoma, an African Anglican priest who authored a report documenting the campaign by leaders of the American Religious Right to mobilize anti-gay sentiment in Africa, Globalizing the Culture Wars, http://www.facebook.com/l/a9dad;www.publiceye.org/publications/globalizing-the-culture-wars/ . The event will also promote a letter-writing campaign, organized by students of the Gay/Straight Alliance of Brookline High School, to urge the Obama Administration and Senators Kerry and Brown to pressure the Ugandan government to abandon the genocidal AHB. This evening’s protest is organized by the Anti-Violence Project of Massachusetts (AVPM”) and Join the Impact MA (“JTIMA”), a grassroots LGBT direct action group which plays a prominent role in the youth-led movement the New York Times has dubbed “Stonewall 2.0.” See http://www.facebook.com/l/a9dad;www.nytimes.com/2009/10/12/us/politics/12protest.html .

AVPM Chair and JTIMA Board member Don Gorton, an Episcopalian, commented: “US fundamentalists claim to obey Christ’s command to ‘love thy neighbor’ even while opposing equality for LGBT Americans down-the-line. Their active promotion of state-sponsored homophobia in Africa puts the lie to specious claims of “Christian love,” and exposes the hatred which drives their opposition to gay rights in whatever form. We execrate their bigotry and hypocrisy, as French writer Emile Zola denounced the anti-Semitism motivating the Dreyfus Affair in the 1890’s in his celebrated J’Accuse.”

Task Force to co-host counter-protest to National Prayer Breakfast at Creating Change Conference

MEDIA CONTACTS:

Inga Sarda-Sorensen, isorensen@thetaskforce.org,
(Office) 646.358.1463, (Cell) 202.641.5592

Pedro Julio Serrano, pserrano@thetaskforce.org,
(Office) 646.358.1479, (Cell) 787.602.5954

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force is co-hosting the American Prayer Hour to protest the National Prayer Breakfast on Feb. 4. It is among other American Prayer Hour events occurring nationwide in response to Uganda's "Anti-Homosexuality Bill" — which would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death.The bill was proposed by Ugandan MP David Bahati. Bahati is connected to The National Prayer Breakfast in Washington, D.C., through the sponsor of the breakfast, The Family. The Family is a secretive Christian based organization that supports placement of leaders in government and economic position of power. Bahati is The Family’s primary organizer in Uganda. Leaders at the Task Force-hosted American Prayer Hour at National Conference on LGBT Equality: Creating Change will gather on Thursday, Feb. 4 at 8 a.m., to protest the National Prayer Breakfast and the Ugandan measure, and will call upon all people to affirm inclusive values and celebrate diversity.
When:
Thursday, Feb. 4, 8 a.m.
Where:
Dallas Ballroom A1, Sheraton Dallas Hotel, 400 North Olive Street in downtown Dallas, Texas

The Rev. Dr. Stephen Sprinkle of Brite Divinity School will moderate; and there will be several speakers, possibly including a Ugandan man seeking asylum in the U.S. who is expected to tell his personal story. The American Prayer Hour events are co-sponsored by the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, Human Rights Campaign, Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, National Black Justice Coalition, Metropolitan Community Church, Faith in America, Bishop Gene Robinson and Truth Wins Out.
More about the conference: Creating Change reflects the breadth and scope of diversity of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community and supporters of LGBT rights. It is the largest organizing conference for LGBT rights supporters in the United States. Find additional details here: creatingchange.org/.

Tax Court: SRS Deductions now allowed! Glad hosting Conference call to explain ruling

Source NTCE: In a closely-watched case, the United States Tax Court overwhelmingly ruled on Tuesday in O'Donnabhain v. Commissioner of Internal Revenue that a transgender woman's medical expenses for hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery were medically necessary and therefore tax-deductible under Federal law. After considering extensive medical evidence and testimony from leading medical experts, the court rejected an interpretation of the law that would consider transgender people's medical treatment different than all other medically necessary treatment recommended by major medical and psychological organizations.

"Finally, we have recognition from the courts of what transgender people and our medical providers have known all along-that transition related care is absolutely necessary health care for the wellbeing of many transgender people," said Mara Keisling, the Executive Director of the National Center for Transgender Equality. "Being able to deduct a portion of costly medical treatments will make it more affordable for transgender people to follow through with the care their doctors prescribe. For the IRS to treat transgender people and non-transgender people differently was discrimination, plain and simple, and now that has ended."

The court's decision does not mean that all medical treatments and procedures associated with gender transition will be tax-deductible. Like all other medical treatments, deductibility will be based on the medical necessity of the treatment as determined by qualified medical providers in accordance with recognized clinical standards of care. The court recognized, as have the American Medical Association, American Psychological Association and many others, based on overwhelming medical evidence, that transition-related health care is non-cosmetic, medically necessary healthcare.

The case stems from a decision by the IRS to reject Rhiannon O'Donnabhain's deduction of her expenses for sex reassignment surgery in 2001 from her federal income tax. The case went to trial in 2007. Ms. O'Donnabhain was represented by the Transgender Rights Project of Gay & Lesbian Advocates & Defenders (GLAD).

NCTE applauds GLAD's groundbreaking and powerful work and perseverance to win this important victory, and thanks Rhiannon O'Donnabhain for her willingness to stand up and challenge the inequity of the IRS's policies. Her courage and determination will have an impact on the health of transgender people around our country for many years to come.
CONFERENCE CALL TONIGHT
Hear more about the case NCTE is joining GLAD in a community conference call GLAD is hosting tonight (Wednesday) February 3 at 6PM EST / 3PM PST. Attorneys who worked on the case will be on the call explain the case and its ramifications for transgender people. Call in information:

Toll Free Dial-In Number: 1-800-704-9804
Participant Code(s): 61898641#

Wednesday February 3

6:00 PM Eastern Time Zone
5:00 PM Central Time Zone
4:00 PM Mountain Time Zone
3:00 PM Pacific Time Zone


For more information visit transequality.org