Passage 3 Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda’s Anti-Gay Push
美國(guó)插手烏干達(dá)反同性戀運(yùn)動(dòng) 《紐約時(shí)報(bào)》
[00:00]Three Americans arrived in Uganda's capital to give a series of talks.
[00:07]The theme of the event was "the gay agenda
[00:11]that whole hidden and dark agenda"
[00:15]and the threat homosexuals posed to Bible-based values
[00:19]and the traditional African family.
[00:23]For three days thousands of Ugandans, including police officers,
[00:28]teachers and national politicians, listened delightly to the Americans,
[00:35]who were presented as experts on homosexuality.
[00:39]The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight,
[00:44]how gay men often sodomized teenage boys
[00:47]and how "the gay movement is an evil institution" whose goal is "
[00:53]to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it
[00:57]with a culture of sexual promiscuity."
[01:01]Now the three Americans are finding themselves on the defensive,
[01:05]saying they had no intention of helping stoke the kind of anger
[01:11]that could lead to what came next: a bill to impose a death sentence
[01:17]for homosexual behavior.
[01:20]One month after the conference, a previously unknown Ugandan politician
[01:26]introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009,
[01:32]which threatens to hang homosexuals, and, as a result,
[01:37]has put Uganda on a collision course with Western nations.
[01:43]Donor countries are demanding that Uganda's government drop the proposed law,
[01:49]saying it violates human rights. The Ugandan government,
[01:54]facing the prospect of losing millions in foreign aid,
[01:59]is now indicating that it will back down, slightly,
[02:03]and change the death penalty planning to life in prison for some homosexuals.
[02:10]But the battle is far from over.
[02:14]Instead, Uganda seems to have become a wide-spread front line
[02:20]in the American culture wars, with American groups on both sides,
[02:25]the Christian right and gay activists, pouring in support and money
[02:31]as they get involved in the broader debate over homosexuality in Africa.
[02:37]The three Americans who spoke at the conference
[02:42]are now trying to distance themselves from the bill. "I feel befooled,"
[02:49]one of them arguing that he had been invited to speak on "parenting skills"
[02:55]for families with gay children.
[02:58]He acknowledged telling audiences
[03:00]how homosexuals could be converted into heterosexuals,
[03:05]but he said he had no idea some Ugandans were contemplating the death
[03:11]penalty for homosexuality.
[03:14]But the Ugandan organizers of the conference admit helping draft the bill,
[03:20]and the three Americans have acknowledged meeting
[03:24]with Ugandan lawmakers to discuss it.
[03:27]Human rights advocates in Uganda say the visit
[03:31]by the three Americans helped set in motion
[03:35]what could be a very dangerous cycle.
[03:38]Gay Ugandans already describe a world of beatings, blackmail,
[03:44]death threats like "Die Sodomite!" scratched on their homes,
[03:49]constant harassment and even so-called correctional rape.
[03:54]Despite such attacks, many gay men and lesbians here said
[04:00]things had been getting better for them before the bill,
[04:04]at least enough to hold news conferences and publicly advocate for their rights.
[04:10]Now they worry that the bill could encourage lynchings.
[04:15]Already, mobs beat people to death for infractions as minor as stealing shoes.
