Uganda: the insane limits of religious extremism

Just when I though no one could get much viler than Fred Phelps, this issue pops up from Uganda, and to say that it puts African fundamentalist wackjobs in a new, even more malign light than before is being far too kind.

To wit, the Ugandan parliament is considering a bill that - in short - would criminalize not only homosexuality but any act of speech advocating on behalf of the Ugandan LGBT community.

From Ed Brayton's piece:

The proposed bill would:

* Reaffirm the lifetime sentence currently provided upon conviction of homosexuality, and extends the definition from sexual activity to merely "touch[ing] another person with the intention of committing the act of homosexuality."

* Create a new category of "aggravated homosexuality" which provides for the death penalty for "repeat offenders" and for cases where the individual is HIV-positive.

* Criminalizes all speech and peaceful assembly for those who advocate on behalf of LGBT citizens in Uganda with fines and imprisonment of between five and seven years
.
* Criminalizes the act of obtaining a same-sex marriage abroad with lifetime imprisonment.

* Adds a clause which forces friends or family members to report LGBT persons to police within 24-hours of learning about that individual's homosexuality or face fines or imprisonment of up to three years.

* Adds an extra-territorial and extradition provisions, allowing Uganda to prosecute LGBT Ugandans living abroad.

Pretty damn monstrous, isn't it?

I'm sure that the fourth and sixth bullet points probably violate any number of international treaties as well.

Freddy Phelps would be proud. So would Joseph Kony.

But wait! There's more!

First-world support for this atrocious piece of legislation comes in the form of strong support by the American fundamentalist organization The Family (AKA The Fellowship), which apparently has Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni's ear. If you don't want to slog through the Fresh Air interview with journalist Jeff Sharlet, Ed's more succinct post on the Ugandan connection can be found here.

After reading stuff like this, I'm beginning to think that investing in a gross of air-sickness bags wouldn't be such a dumb idea.

Reality 2, Kirk Cameron 0

Martin A. Lessem has a piece on one of Kirk Cameron's pathetic attempts to attack the theory of evolution (other than the ridiculous creationist-annotated version of the Origin of Species he's been hawking of late, of course) and does a nice job of pointing out that you really, really shouldn't use examples of unfound transitional fossils that are about to be found. And one of them by local guy Paul Sereno, no less.

It also seem that Kirk's attempts to hawk free copies of his new favorite book aren't going all that well.

OTOH, whaddaya expect from a failed teenage actor who demanded that the actress who played his girlfriend on Growing Pains be fired merely because she posed in Playboy?

More deep thoughts about Tiger Woods

Yeah, yeah, I know; it's being done to death everywhere. I just thought that I might want to get some more humor out of the situation if I could.

3) No offense, but I've seen the photos of Rachel Uchitel and Jaimee Grubbs and compared them to Elin Woods. No offense - and I'm not going completely out of my way to seem like a sexist douche here - but he could've done better in choosing women of convenience in terms of looks, particularly in comparison to his wife. Beer goggles at work? C*ckhound behavior gone horribly wrong? What?

(For those of you interested in my personal opinion: Grubbs - somewhat passable but obviously augmented. Uchitel - uchimeh.)

4) Remember what I said about how I said this might not even be his twentieth liason? Anybody wishing to bet the over-under with me can contact me via email for the right to win a no-prize at the MIB Pirate Party at Capricon in February. Terms to be discussed later.

5) Anyone else convinced that a really, really bad cable TV movie about this is already being script-doctored for a spring premiere date? Anybody also convinced that there's a particularly good chance it'll be aired by Showtime?