March 2nd
This article brings to light what life is like for any person who is not straight in Uganda. Uganda is a country that houses some of the most sever laws against gays, lesbians and transgendered individuals. The most terrible of those used to be death, however that has recently been removed as an option. Still a person who is convicted of sexual acts that are not straight in nature can be sentenced to a life in prison. Those who know someone is not straight and do not report it can face up to 3 years in prison. It is believed that this harsh take on these individuals came about because of three christian evangelicals who visited the country a few years ago. Uganda being a very religious country took up these “values” rather quickly. In this article we find that a gay individual is not only hunted down by neighbors and policy, but can not be seen out in day light for fear of being caught and sent to jail. Once outed in any way, a person can no longer find work and can easily lose everything they have worked for. I feel like using religion as a means to push a particular agenda is not the fairest way to go. Even in the bible that they hold near and dear and use as a way to enforce their laws, says not to judge a man. They are going directly against that. I personally think it is a deeper issue. I think it stems from the country not being able to accept something that is different and not knowing how to handle it so they instead use something of value to say it is wrong. This article does a good job of showing us how unfair life can be from a gay man in a country such as Uganda. I think it is important to keep in mind that even though we are having issues here in the US with individuals who identify with something other than straight, other countries are worse than us. Its just something to keep in the back of our minds. That maybe we can set a standard for other nations if we could learn to accept the LGBTQ community.
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