U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has denounced Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill in an appearance at Georgetown University.
She also addressed anti-gay activity in Iraq and Iran.
“Over this past year, we have elevated into our human rights dialogues and our public statements a very clear message about protecting the rights of the LGBT community worldwide,” Clinton said. “And we are particularly concerned about some of the specific cases that have come to our attention around the world. There have been organized efforts to kill and maim gays and lesbians in some countries that we have spoken out about, and also conveyed our very strong concerns about to their governments — not that they were governmentally implemented or even that the government was aware of them, but that the governments need to pay much greater attention to the kinds of abuses that we’ve seen in Iraq, for example.”
“We are deeply concerned,” she continued, “about some of the stories coming out of Iran. In large measure, in reaction, we think, to the response to the elections back in June, there have been abuses committed within the detention facilities and elsewhere that we are deeply concerned about. And then the … piece of legislation in Uganda which would not only criminalize homosexuality but attach the death penalty to it. We have expressed our concerns directly, indirectly, and we will continue to do so. The bill has not gone through the Ugandan legislature, but it has a lot of public support by various groups, including religious leaders in Uganda. And we view it as a very serious potential violation of human rights.
“So it is clear that across the world this is a new frontier in the minds of many people about how we protect the LGBT community, but it is at the top of our list because we see many instances where there is a very serious assault on the physical safety and an increasing effort to marginalize people. And we think it’s important for the United States to stand against that and to enlist others to join us in doing so.”
The Ugandan legislation, the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009,” would imprison for life anyone convicted of “the offense of homosexuality”; punish “aggravated homosexuality” — including repeat offenders, or anyone who is HIV-positive and has gay sex — with the death penalty; forbid “promotion of homosexuality” and incarcerate rights defenders who work on LGBT rights; and imprison anyone for up to three years if they fail to report within 24 hours anyone they know who is lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender or who supports GLBT human rights.
A Dec. 9 news report by Bloomberg said officials plan to “drop the death penalty and life imprisonment for gays … to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties.” But on Dec. 13, the bill’s author told Britain’s The Observer there is no such plan. On Dec. 22, MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow reported that anti-gay Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni privately assured U.S. officials he will veto the bill.
IRAQ
In Iraq, according to Human Rights Watch, militias are torturing and murdering men suspected of engaging in gay sex or of not being manly enough, and the authorities have done nothing to stop the killing.
The organization has documented a campaign of extrajudicial executions, kidnappings and torture that began in early 2009 in the Baghdad district of Sadr City, a stronghold of Moqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army militia, then spread to other locations.
The killers invade homes and grab people on the street. Victims are interrogated for names of others before being murdered. Torture practices include supergluing victim’s anuses shut, then feeding them laxatives.
Iraqi gays say they also face “honor killings” by homophobic parents and brothers who believe “unmanly” behavior shames the family or tribe.
“Hundreds of men may have died,” according to HRW, though the precise figure is “almost impossible” to determine.
Consensual adult gay sex is not illegal under Iraqi law but the militias have claimed to be enforcing Islamic religious law.
IRAN
Iran has the death penalty for sodomy and has used it, although in nearly all the cases that have been publicized, the teens and men who were hanged were accused of additional crimes as well, such as homosexual rape.
In a 2008 interview, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad denied that people are executed solely for having gay sex.
“Homosexuals are not even known who they are to be hanged,” he told the Democracy Now! radio program. “So, we don’t have executions of homosexuals. Of course, we consider it an abhorrent act, but it is not punished through capital punishment.”
A year earlier, speaking in New York City, Ahmadinejad had claimed that “we in Iran don’t have homo-play (hamjensbaz) like you have in your country.”
“In our country, there is no such thing,” he said. “In Iran … absolutely such a thing does not exist as a phenomenon. I don’t know who told you otherwise.”
“Hamjensbaz” — “same-gender play/player” — is a derogatory term for people who chase after those of the same sex in pursuit of sexual pleasure. A newer word, “hamjensgara” — “same-gender-oriented” — refers to gay folks.
By Rex Wockner
