Being the Change I Wish to See

This article is part 16 in a multi-part series about the Ugandan anti-homosexuality bill of 2009, better known as the Ugandan kill-the-gays bill. It is still alive and on the Ugandan Parliament agenda for debate at the end of 2010 or early in 2011.

This interview with the sponsor of this horrible legislation is enlightening on a very deep level. Being able to discuss Mr. Bahati’s bill directly with him is an extremely rare opportunity, and provides a clear and frightening picture of what he is trying to accomplish in Uganda with the gay population there.

The first 15 articles can be accessed at the following links:

• Part 1: Born in the USA
• Part 2: Horrific Details
• Part 3: American Silence is Deafening
• Part 4: HIV-AIDS Statistics in Uganda
• Part 5: State Dept Must Make US Policy Clear
• Part 6: Richard Cohen and debunking gay cure
• Part 7: Evangelicals were for it before they were against it
• Part 8: Rick Warren forced to oppose Ugandan bill
• Part 9: Condemn the bill to Uganda’s President
• Part 10: The Family finally condemns bill
• Part 11: Not to become law
• Part 12: Family leader Bob Hunter interview
• Part 13: Now it’s the imprison-the-gays-for-life bill
• Part 14: Obama Speaks of Ugandan bill at U.S. Family National Prayer Breakfast
• Part 15: Archbishop Orombi still supports draconian bill

American history: foundational myths about being gay:

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“Gays can’t reproduce so they must recruit”. What a crock. Gays and lesbians are born that way, usually as the product of straight parents. We don’t exactly know why that is, but there a few strongly-supported theories being studied that may explain what we see in nature.

Ten percent (on average) of all mammalian species are homosexual, not just humans, therefore, homosexuality exists consistently in nature and is a normal variant within populations.

Gays and lesbians can reproduce and/or parent adopted children. Egg and sperm donors and surrogate mothers allow couples of both genders to have children biologically related to one or both partners. Children of gay and lesbian parents (biological or adopted) generally turn out straight, not always, but most of the time.

David Bahati Interview (part 1):

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David Bahati says, “I don’t hate gays, I love them”. But he’ll kill every one of them to protect the Ugandan children. According to Mr. Bahati, telling children or teens that a man sleeping with a man is okay is tantamount to recruiting kids into being gay.

He also believes that gays do not deserve human rights protections.

David Bahati Interview (part 2):

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Mr. Bahati doesn’t want to stop at keeping gays away from children. He wants all gay Ugandans punished, no matter where they are in the world. He wants gay Ugandans extradited back to Uganda to stand trial for homosexual behavior whenever it occurs outside of Uganda.

God’s Law and Homosexuality

In the Bible, we first encounter homosexual gang rape in Genesis 18-19 in the story of Lot and the city of Sodom. Gay sex is listed as a sin in Hebrew law (Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13), it is called an abomination, and the penalty is death. It doesn’t say anything about lesbian sex.

In Deuteronomy 22:5, cross-dressing is forbidden. A woman may not put on a man’s clothing, and a man may not put on a woman’s clothing. All of we women who wear pants are definitely in violation of this law.

These laws were specifically designed by God to prohibit the Children of Israel from imitating a variety of acts practiced by other tribes and nations surrounding the Israelites. (See Deuteronomy 18:9).

There is the whole story of David and Jonathan possibly being bisexual lovers. David had many wives. But the story of the relationship between these two men is quite suspicious (See 1 Sam. 20:17), and David got away with a lot of bad stuff and still ended up with a sterling reputation. He could have gotten away with a homosexual relationship, too.

Mr. Bahati gives his own opinion of God’s law as well as saying Jesus preached the same prohibitions against homosexuality. Jesus never preached anything concerning homosexuality specifically, but his Apostle, Paul, did. On the subject of adultery, Jesus stopped the stoning of a woman for adultery, saying “he who is without sin, cast the first stone”. Jesus saved the woman’s life by reminding everyone that no one is without sin, and mercy and forgiveness should be shown over strident application of Hebrew law. Jesus preached love, mercy and forgiveness, and I do not believe he would have considered today’s gay or lesbian couples to be abominations.

People of that time were ignorant of a homosexual nature with which a person is born, a nature involving romantic love of another person of the same sex. Their experience was limited to the sexual religious practices of the Canaanites and other local tribes that would have been pretty appealing to the Israelites. (Imagine orgies instead of church).

Mr. Bahati is correct that the Bible has prohibitions against homosexual sex, but the laws were not meant literally for a modern world. They were meant to keep the Israelites from participating in the practices of worshiping the gods of the other nations surrounding them (including idol worship, cultic prostitution, incest, homosexuality, bestiality, and infant sacrifice).

If one wants to talk about rampant sins, adultery is a very big problem in African cultures as well as most of the rest of the world. We no longer punish adulterers with stoning or scarlet letters or banishment. That is seen as ridiculous. Since homosexuality and adultery are discussed in the Bible in the same passages on laws about sex, homosexuality laws in the Bible should also be seen today in the same light as adultery.

To date, Mr. Bahati has sent nothing to The Rachel Maddow Show showing any facts supporting his allegation that gays recruit children into homosexuality.

David Bahati Interview (part 3):

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Mr. Bahati does not understand that there is such a thing as international law and punishment for human rights atrocities, and imprisoning and executing gays for being gay would certainly be an atrocity.

Jeff Sharlet Reports

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Conservative American supporters inside The Family and out, are exporting the fight against homosexuality to Uganda and David Bahati. When/if he wins the war there he will bring the lessons of the victory back to America to restart the conservative war against homosexuality in America and try again to win it.

Fortunately, I believe, and so do many others, that gays and lesbians will have full and equal civil rights as all other Americans by the time Uganda gets done with their bill.

Don’t Ask Don’t Tell has already been repealed. Joe Biden sees a path clearing for legalizing same-sex marriage all over the country, and even President Obama is beginning to see same-sex marriage as the institution that will be instated rather than civil unions.

Over the past 21 months of working closely with gays and lesbians on DADT, it seems President Obama has come to see their lives and relationships as much more similar to straight relationships than they are different from them. I say bravo for the President.

You can watch the full, unedited interview here on MaddowBlog.

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I had to post this gem. This video is from the 1990 Castro Valley, CA, high school graduation ceremony. Rachel Maddow was 17 when she spoke.

Did you hear someone in the background at the end of the video say,

She’s going on to Stanford, and one day, she’s gonna do something wonderful

That person knew what she was talking about.

I particularly love the white socks, Birkenstocks and shorts under her gown; and the long hair and earrings. Even though she looks totally different today, her voice is unmistakable and her style is a rough version of the polished analyst and progressive pundit she has become.

Fighting closed-mindedness, changing the world, and making America progress are all things Rachel does today on MSNBC, which is seen all over the world.

While the adults and leaders of Castro Valley couldn’t say “condom” in 1990, today Rachel can’t say “masturbation” on her TV show out of total embarrassment. If she said it, they would likely have to go to commercial, and there would be a guest host when they returned. She would hit the floor red-faced and laughing hysterically to the point she could not go on.

I’m going to email her and ask her to discuss this contradiction with her 17-year-old self. By the time she gets back from Thanksgiving vacation, the above video will have gone viral, and I wonder how many other TRMS fans will also ask about this?

On a related tangent, a young lady who strikes me as just as impressive as young Rachel was, is Cadet-Sargent Katherine Miller, who recently resigned from West Point because of the military’s Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy. She felt continuing in the Army and staying in the closet compromised her integrity. Katie had been out in high school and had to go back into the closet to go to West Point. It was far harder than she imagined it would be, and she resigned publicly in protest to help end the policy. She is currently attending Yale on full scholarship until she graduates, or is able to return to West Point as an out lesbian and serve openly in the Army.

A Brief Rachel Maddow Biography

Rachel was a brilliant, serious child and taught herself to read by age 4. Her mom found her reading the newspaper one morning when she came into the kitchen to make breakfast. From a very young age, she asked difficult questions of all of her teachers.

In high school, Rachel was an impressive athlete in swimming, basketball, and volley ball while performing academically at the top of her class. She was looking at becoming a member of the U.S. Olympic Team, but injured her right shoulder severely and had to decide whether to have reconstructive surgery and take a year off for rehabilitation before trying out, or go on to college. She chose college.

After her athletic career-ending injury, Rachel joined Act-Up, an AIDS organization in San Francisco, before she graduated from high school. Since she could no longer play sports, she had lots of free time.

She attended college at Stanford University where she came out as a lesbian in her freshman year (after figuring out she is gay). She majored in public health policy and minored in ethics. She attended graduate school as a Rhodes Scholar at Oxford, where she earned a PhD in political science. She was the first openly gay student to win a Rhodes Scholarship. There were other gay Rhodes Scholars, but they didn’t come out until after they were awarded the scholarship. In between college and grad school, she worked for the ACLU.

When she returned to the U.S. she decided to move to rural western Massachusetts because she didn’t like the cold, and thought she would be miserable enough to get her writing done quickly. Instead, she found love. She met her life partner, Susan Mikula, while doing odd jobs and trying to write her doctoral dissertation. Susan and Rachel still live in Northampton when they are not in New York. Rachel went into local radio in Massachusetts on a dare, and then she had to take time off to finish writing her dissertation because it wasn’t getting done.

From local radio, Rachel accepted a job at Air America Radio and moved to New York City. She began guesting on various cable TV shows as a progressive political pundit. She was a regular on “The Situation with Tucker Carlson” on MSNBC. She signed an exclusive contract with MSNBC to be a contributor on that network and continued her show on Air America. On 9/8/2008, her show debuted on MSNBC, and it’s still going strong. Unfortunately, Air America Radio went out of business in February 2010, and Rachel’s radio show ended.

Happy Thanksgiving to all, and if Rachel addresses the condom v masturbation word usage problem, I will let you know.

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