Dr. James Nsaba Buturo
Minister of Ethics and Integrity
Office of the President, Parliamentary Building
P. O. Box 7168
Kampala, Uganda
RE: Launch of hate campaign against sexual minorities
Dear Sir,
Honorable minister, as Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), we believe that “Uganda is the Land of Freedom.” It is for this reason that we are bringing to your attention the hate campaign against sexual minorities that has been launched by the Family Life Network (FLN) in conjunction with the American Evangelical Christians, spearheaded by Dr. Scot Lively and Don Schiemerer. This team claims that the American Gay agenda in Africa should be fought “at all costs.” It is for this reason that we are concerned due to the fact that this team is disregarding all scientific studies and linking homosexuality to child sexual abuse.
Furthermore, Family Life Network is misinforming the unsuspecting public with the following allegations:
- Homosexuality is a learned habit and can be unlearned.
- It is a mental illness that is dangerous to the community.
- Homosexuals are behind the promotion of pornography in Uganda.
- The communities around Uganda should be wary of homosexuals since they are out to molest and abuse the children of Uganda. In order to incite the public to fight homosexuals, they have come up with a plan to raise a public outcry to Ugandan parents at all levels to use any means to fight homosexuals. In fact, they are inciting the public by stressing that this fight is about the safety of our children.
- They allege that Uganda homosexuals have recruited young people in schools, Churches and in all public places in order to destroy our beloved nation of Uganda.
As patriotic Ugandans, we at SMUG take special concern to the above unsubstantiated allegation leveled against the sexual minorities. To start with, these allegations are meant to incite hate against our members. We are informed by the Family Life Network Executive Director, Stephen Langa that he and Dr. Scot Lively met with our honorable Members of Parliament for over four hours to strategize on how best to use the parliament and other government organs to fight homosexuals. While we are not aware of what they discussed, our researchers heard of some highlights of such a meeting on Sunday 15th March 2009 at a FLN meeting held at Hotel Triangle, Kampala. Among the highlights are the following:
- FLN is lobbying the police, the government, Members of Parliament and other law enforcement agencies to get rid of homosexuals in Uganda in disregard to human rights.
- FLN plans to move from door to door, Churches to Mosques, all schools and hospitals in order to encourage the public to join the war against homosexuals.
- FLN plans lobbying the Police to create a special division in Uganda police to persecute homosexuals.
- FLN intends to get people to spy on senior government officials, teachers, students at all levels of education, nurses and doctors, religious leaders and report any suspected homosexuals paid by the Gay movement.
- FLN is encouraging the public to use violence against homosexuality in case the law fails to work in their favor.
In for us to live “in peace and friendship,” we are worried that the above strategies will escalate public violence and other human rights abuses towards sexual minorities. It will also bring about mistrust among students, families, teachers, senior government officials and religious leaders. In fact, many people will be victimized and discriminated against on suspicion that they are gay.
In addition, linking homosexuality with child sexual abuse will provide the public with emotional reason to employ violence against sexual minorities. We are aware that FLN is using the “protection” of the children from homosexuals as a fundraising gimmick. This is confirmed by the number of unsuspecting parents who have already pledged financial support to FLN agenda.
Honorable ministers, SMUG is not aware of the so called “Gay recruitment strategies” in schools and other places of influence. As such, we call on Mr. Langa to publicly expose all individuals, students, teachers, Church pastors, and senior government officials who are funded by the Gay movement.
We also want to bring to your attention that FNL activists are intending on hunting down sexual minorities and making public their names and places of residence. This will increase our vulnerability.
We realize that many parents are still ignorant when it comes to the question of sexuality in our nation. It is for this reason that we call on FLN and its media outlets to provide scientific and balanced views on sexuality. We further call on the Parliament to consult with reputable scientists on the subject. The upcoming FLN curriculum is biased to the American Christian Evangelicals ideology and it should not be used by our learned Parliamentarians since it disregards all scientific studies on the subject. Honorable minister, mobilizing the public against sexual minorities using lies will only lead to violence against them. Ethically, it is immoral to misinform the public using false scientific information.
We condemn the increasing child sexual abuse in Uganda. In order for Uganda to continue being the “Pearl of Africa,” we would like to see more strict measures employed to curb this increasing vice. However, we are highly disappointed that FLN is misleading the public by defining homosexuality as being behind child abuse. Although FLN does not want to address child abuse holistically, we as SMUG condemn child-sexual abuse by homosexuals and heterosexuals respectively. In this regard, we would like to call on the government to come up with strict measures to address this vice.
As SMUG, “We lay our future in thy hand, united, free for liberty, together we will always stand.”
Mugisha
Frank Mugisha
Chairperson Sexual Minorities Uganda – SMUG
Contact:
+256 773104971
CC. Office of the President
CC. Family Life Network – FLN
CC. M.Ps CC. UHRC
CC. Inspector general of police
CC. Embassies
CC. FHRI
CC. HURINATE
CC. Amnesty International
CC. MOE
CC. Church leaders/UJCC
CC. UMSC
CC. Ministry of Youth and Sports
CC. Media houses