Malawi jails 2 gays

[joninliverton]

I've just read this article on MSN news. Apparentley it's been known about for some time and although Malawi has been condemned by the West they still choose to be so homophobic. Of course they get 40% of their income as charity or loads from the "rotten west".

"Couple jailed for gay relationship

A Malawi gay couple have been convicted of having a criminal relationship and could face up to 14 years in jail under the country's colonial-era laws.

They were found guilty of unnatural acts and gross indecency after a trial that drew worldwide condemnation.

Steven Monjeza, 26, and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, 20, had been jailed since their arrest on December 27, the day they celebrated their engagement with a party that drew crowds of curious, jeering onlookers.

Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Nyakwawa Usiwa said the sentencing will take place on Thursday.

Hearings in the trial also have drawn Malawians who have ridiculed the couple, an indication of views on homosexuality in the traditional society - and elsewhere in Africa.

Homosexuality is illegal in at least 37 countries on the continent. In Uganda, MPs are considering a bill that would sentence homosexuals to life in prison and include capital punishment for "repeat offenders." Even in South Africa, the only African country that recognises gay rights, gangs have carried out so-called "corrective" rapes on lesbians.

Michaela Clayton of the South Africa-based Aids & Rights Alliance for Southern Africa said not only were human rights being violated, but the fight against Aids was being hurt. Gay people forced underground were unlikely to seek counselling and treatment for Aids, she and other activists said.

She said gays and other minorities in Africa had in recent years become more assertive about their sexual orientation and about claiming their rights, which could have led to the backlash. "We have to keep on being strategic about the way we push this agenda forward," she said.

Priti Patel of the Southern African Litigation Centre, an independent rights group, said the Malawians could appeal on the grounds that the laws under which they were prosecuted violate the country's 1994 constitution. But an earlier attempt by their lawyer to have the case thrown out on those grounds was rejected.

Malawi's government has been defiant in the face of international criticism over the prosecution. Months before the verdict, Information Minister Leckford Mwanza Thoto said it was clear the two had broken the law. Malawi church leaders have backed the government, saying homosexuality is "sinful" and the West should not be allowed to use its financial power to force Malawi to accept homosexuality. Malawi relies on donors for 40% of its development budget."

 

[MissDeidra]

Oh...That article made me so MAD! FUCK.

 

[parisnoyd]

Stop the donations. That will teach the stupid vile fucks! Heartbreaking...

 

[angelone]

The homophobia is obvious to say the least, but what is really the issue here? Eradicating the American Indians was for their lands, the Jews for their wealth, the Japanese Americans out of fear and hatred, so why Black gays? Could it be because they're escapegoat for their countries' domestic problems? Starving animals usually turn on the weakest member of their pack and in this case it is GLBTT people.

 

[Jayman01]

This article just shows what kind of fight we still have on our hands on a global scale for gay rights. Very depressing.

Again this is why I continue to say we need to fight for the right to be equal in all ways to heterosexual couples. We need to set a national precedence as a major world power. However, it has also been argued on a political level that giving gay rights to American citizens could weaken our political power an a global scale. I disagree with that whole line of thinking. It is a moral imperative that we continue to fight for equality. One serious problem that we face in the US. Is that many states have sodomy laws. However, the bigger issue with these laws is that they don't just identify sodomy as anal sex. Many states define sodomy as sex in any form other than the missionary position between a man and a woman. Also, many states still have laws that forbid people to engage in sex outside the confines of marriage.

So, you see these laws need to be repealed or amended so that GLBT citizens and have equal rights. What good is a civil union if you cannot legally engage in sex with your partners??? Just some food for thought...

 

[enzo]

International reactions

The international reactions are emerging...

US State departement reacted by saying that "The conviction and sentencing are a significant step backward for the Government of Malawi’s human rights record. Malawi must abide by its human rights obligations"
http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2010/05/142068.htm

UK foreign office reacted by saying that "The conviction and sentencing to the maximum 14 years' imprisonment runs counter to a positive trend "
http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/news/latest-news/?view=News&id=22255069

From Canada, the head foreign office announced that they have invited Malawi at the next G20 and this topic will be addressed... They are strong oponent to Ouganda new anti-gay law and will make everything possible to help the two jailed gays.

Amnesty international reacted by saying that the most shocking in this story if the fact that the Malawi constitution deny any form of discrimination and garantee the freedom of speech and the right to a private life. They will help the 2 gays to battle in tribunals in order to cancel this sentence.

Finally, most important , our Madonna alos reacted, it's here :
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/wor...ng_gay_couple_to_14_years_hard_labor_for.html

I could continue, but clearly it shows that mentality are changing. 10 years ago, you would have not reactions form USA, UK, France. In 2010, yes and this is really a good news.

 

[Jayman01]

Thank you for keeping us appraised of this. Interesting, how two countries that are still fighting for Gay rights voiced their opposition. "Things that make you go Hummmm!!!"

 

[aquarius]

It's all well and good to look at the reactions and pat people on the back who are shouting "The horror! the horror!" But we need to educate ourselves as to the human causes of this sudden rampant homphobia in Africa and hold their feet to the fires of the hell they have created.

When the schism in the Episcopal Church started over Gene Robinson's ordination and the conservative bishops of Africa began to take the lead - our own greedy, self-righteous American fundamentalist ministers (Rick Warren being prominent among them) began to move into Africa and feed on it. They preached mightily on the sin of sodomy and the "homosexual agenda" in the US and, saying things they would not be allowed to say in the US by a responsible (or semi-responsible) press, and stirred African fundamentalists to a near riot state. The laws in Uganda, the trials in Malawi are all direct results of it. Warren has tried several times to distance himself from Uganda, but each time he returns he is caught again in stirring the embers. Just to take the whole thing back to its beginnings, here is a report from the first conference -

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.” http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/...-uganda-weighs-death-for-gays-nytimescom.html

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.
http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/...-uganda-weighs-death-for-gays-nytimescom.html



Now, as to the real roots of all this. In the 1800's, Uganda had a gay King. King Mwanga. Here is where the whole problem really started and this is taken from Joe.My.God:

By official count 22 young men were executed under Uganda’s [original] law on homosexuality. The law in question required that all men and boys in Uganda be willing to submit to the homosexual seduction of it’s ruler, King Mwanga. When Ugandans began to convert to Christianity in the 1800s, a group of Catholics, led by Charles Lwanga, refused to allow themselves to be sodomized by the King. Enraged, King Mwanga had them torurously bound, marched 37 miles and then roasted alive in a fire pit. The date of their execution was June 3rd, 1886, and is today a national holiday commemorating Uganda’s rejection of homosexuality and commitment to Christian values.http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/12/scott-lively-commends-brave-ugandans.html


So fighting the Ugandans homophobia is a little more than cutting off their aid, it's battling their history, it's battling their longheld faith, it's re-educating them to the lies and misconceptions Americans have already taught them, and it's getting them around the belief that we are a nation of the biggest hypocrites on earth. I don't really believe cutting off aid to their AIDS victims or their starving and homeless is going to cut it.

I almost wish we had a Gay Mafia in Hollywood, because right now I'd be willing to chip in to send them to Malawi to break those two out of prison. They so break my heart. I wish that every homosexual in the world who enjoys the freedom to love could send them a card or note of support. I wish our own government could offer them sanctuary.

I re-read Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" last night and I'm afraid to wish for the wrath of God on any nation or group of people, but I wish for an awakening to love and harmony. I'm too old for even righteous indignation to have much purpose.


My hero, Rachel Maddow, took Rick Warren to task. I take some consolation in that. Click on this link for her report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/34372297#34372297

 

[enzo]

Ho god.... not Rick Warren. As an European, I simply cannot understand how such a guy can have so much popularity. Almost what he say is false and throufully an attempt to impose hese ideas on top of the bible. This guy use his so called Christinaity to justify his thought against gays. His has put himself on top of everything as he very a second Jesus or better than God himslef. Problem is that i do not think that incitation to hate is really campatible with the bible...

I sometimes scratch my head to understand how such guy can go outside USA without having someone from state department making everything possible that the lies he tells to not very educated people come to an end. This guy represents USA also and gives certainly one of the worst image of the country.

 

[aquarius]

Well, we all have our problems. We have Rick Warren. Europe has the Pope. It would be wonderful if they both stayed home.

 

[enzo]

This is quite not comparable at all. At least the pope can be listened to for some subject and goes not in country preaching to kill people. He try more or less to follow the bible and put not himslef of it by reinventing part of it.

But I sense in your reply, Aquarius, the standard "do not critize America". If you were offended by my last post, here my apologies as it was not my intention.

 

[aquarius]

No, not at all. Rick Warren did not go into Uganda asking that homosexuals be killed and the pope does not either. But you are wrong when you say that he and the pope do not both interpret the bible in the same way. They both do. They both use it to condemn homosexuals and homosexuality. In Fatima, Portugal only last week the pope said that gay marriage is one of the world's greatest threats.


You may criticize America all you want. We are far from a perfect people. I am part Native American, so I know that. My people were part of the Trail of Tears. I am extremely proud to be an American, but I am not so foolish as to believe that every American is perfect or that everything we do is above reproach.

If I took any offense at your comment at all it was in saying that all Americans believed Warren. We do not. Only a small group do. The real shame is that so many of us believe the Ugandans to be ignorant. They really are not. When we consider what they are having to overcome in their history - it was so easy for Lively and Warren and the others to play on their tragic past in stirring them up.I'm not sure what the correct response is now. What would have helped would have been if the Catholic Church, which has such a strong influence in Uganda, would have said no to the law on killing - but, then, it did not. Even Rick Warren came out and condemned the law, but the pope did not. Might want to rethink your argument there.

 

[joninliverton]

Personally I dont give a fuck about the church whether it be catholic, church of england or whatever orthodox religion there is. I laugh at the catholic response considering the issues they are having this year with the Ireland debacle.

And when I walk down the street and chat to people and ask, how many of you lot go to church there is probably only 1 muted response in 50. And when I go back to my little village in Wales and find that there is only 1 church left out of 4, I feel the world in changing.

I have yet to decide what the new UK govts stance will be regarding homophobia, given the fact that Section 28 was Thatchers doing... However, saying that, we are far more open minded about gay rights then what we used to be and certainly far more tolerant.

Come the next charity concert or TV show that promotes Africa and the poorer states, I'm afraid they won't be getting my pink pound. Sure they take the money from us but then they choose to behave like this. No way Jose

 

[aquarius]

I think that's the way I feel, too. But then I think that also might leave the door open for those fools like the American fundamentalists and the Conservative Anglicans and the Catholics to rush in with their aid coupled with their lectures on the homosexual agenda and I think who do we have there to tell them the truth. They have no media to show them what goes on in the outside world and no teachers to tell them the truth. All they have is one of the highest death rates from aids in the world, a horrendous death rate from starvation and disease, an almost Dracularian history about a homosexual king who brutally murdered 22 youth, and none of our governments are doing anymore than giving lip service to counter any of this.

Maybe we do need an International Pink Cross to send aid to these countries that says "this gift of food and life and hope comes to you from the very people you condemn." Maybe jon is right. Maybe we pull our support from all charities but our own, so when our dollar or pound or euro goes to help those in need - they know it's coming from us. What would the refugees think who received food or medicine from the Pink Cross tent? What stories would they take back? There'd certainly be no shortage of compassion because we are experts at that!

Sorry, I'll shut up. I'm just a dreamer. As to the Uganda situation, it is far too complex for any of us to solve. It took a hundred years to create and may take twice that long to end. What we must force our governments to find right now is a diplomatic solution to the horror of the penalities our African family faces.

 

[Jayman01]

It's all well and good to look at the reactions and pat people on the back who are shouting "The horror! the horror!" But we need to educate ourselves as to the human causes of this sudden rampant homphobia in Africa and hold their feet to the fires of the hell they have created.

When the schism in the Episcopal Church started over Gene Robinson's ordination and the conservative bishops of Africa began to take the lead - our own greedy, self-righteous American fundamentalist ministers (Rick Warren being prominent among them) began to move into Africa and feed on it. They preached mightily on the sin of sodomy and the "homosexual agenda" in the US and, saying things they would not be allowed to say in the US by a responsible (or semi-responsible) press, and stirred African fundamentalists to a near riot state. The laws in Uganda, the trials in Malawi are all direct results of it. Warren has tried several times to distance himself from Uganda, but each time he returns he is caught again in stirring the embers. Just to take the whole thing back to its beginnings, here is a report from the first conference -

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.” http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/...-uganda-weighs-death-for-gays-nytimescom.html

The three Americans who spoke at the conference — Scott Lively, a missionary who has written several books against homosexuality, including “7 Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child”; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-described former gay man who leads “healing seminars”; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, whose mission is “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” — are now trying to distance themselves from the bill.
http://www.religiousrightwatch.com/...-uganda-weighs-death-for-gays-nytimescom.html



Now, as to the real roots of all this. In the 1800's, Uganda had a gay King. King Mwanga. Here is where the whole problem really started and this is taken from Joe.My.God:

By official count 22 young men were executed under Uganda’s [original] law on homosexuality. The law in question required that all men and boys in Uganda be willing to submit to the homosexual seduction of it’s ruler, King Mwanga. When Ugandans began to convert to Christianity in the 1800s, a group of Catholics, led by Charles Lwanga, refused to allow themselves to be sodomized by the King. Enraged, King Mwanga had them torurously bound, marched 37 miles and then roasted alive in a fire pit. The date of their execution was June 3rd, 1886, and is today a national holiday commemorating Uganda’s rejection of homosexuality and commitment to Christian values.http://joemygod.blogspot.com/2009/12/scott-lively-commends-brave-ugandans.html


So fighting the Ugandans homophobia is a little more than cutting off their aid, it's battling their history, it's battling their longheld faith, it's re-educating them to the lies and misconceptions Americans have already taught them, and it's getting them around the belief that we are a nation of the biggest hypocrites on earth. I don't really believe cutting off aid to their AIDS victims or their starving and homeless is going to cut it.

I almost wish we had a Gay Mafia in Hollywood, because right now I'd be willing to chip in to send them to Malawi to break those two out of prison. They so break my heart. I wish that every homosexual in the world who enjoys the freedom to love could send them a card or note of support. I wish our own government could offer them sanctuary.

I re-read Mark Twain's "The War Prayer" last night and I'm afraid to wish for the wrath of God on any nation or group of people, but I wish for an awakening to love and harmony. I'm too old for even righteous indignation to have much purpose.


My hero, Rachel Maddow, took Rick Warren to task. I take some consolation in that. Click on this link for her report.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/vp/34372297#34372297

Aquarius you are not alone in these thoughts. LOL. I agree that we need to educate everyone everywhere that Homosexuality is not a sin. That we are people too and deserving of equal rights.

The Ugandan history kind of makes me a little nauseous myself. No sexual act should ever be forced upon anyone. They call that Rape... The king abused his authority. As did many monarchs through out the ages. Hence we have been dissolving the absolute rule of monarchies everywhere and moving to a more democratic form of leadership. Now if people can only separate themselves from the malevolent deeds forced upon society by the baleful monarchs we can get back to basic human decency and honor one another's rights to live freely with out risk of retribution for being GLBT or another minority.

 

[Jayman01]

I think that's the way I feel, too. But then I think that also might leave the door open for those fools like the American fundamentalists and the Conservative Anglicans and the Catholics to rush in with their aid coupled with their lectures on the homosexual agenda and I think who do we have there to tell them the truth. They have no media to show them what goes on in the outside world and no teachers to tell them the truth. All they have is one of the highest death rates from aids in the world, a horrendous death rate from starvation and disease, an almost Dracularian history about a homosexual king who brutally murdered 22 youth, and none of our governments are doing anymore than giving lip service to counter any of this.

Maybe we do need an International Pink Cross to send aid to these countries that says "this gift of food and life and hope comes to you from the very people you condemn." Maybe jon is right. Maybe we pull our support from all charities but our own, so when our dollar or pound or euro goes to help those in need - they know it's coming from us. What would the refugees think who received food or medicine from the Pink Cross tent? What stories would they take back? There'd certainly be no shortage of compassion because we are experts at that!

Sorry, I'll shut up. I'm just a dreamer. As to the Uganda situation, it is far too complex for any of us to solve. It took a hundred years to create and may take twice that long to end. What we must force our governments to find right now is a diplomatic solution to the horror of the penalities our African family faces.

LOL International Pink Cross. I love it. I think we should just stick with the triangle. The International Red Cross had to adopt many other symbols because of the religious conotations of the cross emblem. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emblems_of_the_International_Red_Cross_and_Red_Crescent_Movement



I guess the whole thing can get messy on an international level.

Although here is what the Pink Cross does. http://www.thepinkcross.org/page/help-links

Again thanks for sharing

Pls. note that the below symbols are part of the International Red Cross movement and all are accepted and recognized symbols of peace and aide.

 

[aquarius]

Just in case anyone's interested, CURRENT-TV's VANGUARD Series tonight at 11, 10C will present a 1 hour documentary on the evangelical shenanigans in Uganda that this thread has been about. It has actual footage from some of the conferences and then from some of them later trying to distance themselves from it. It helps to put this thing in perspective. On DISH, Current is up around LOGO.

 

[enzo]

The end

Hi all,

great news. International reactions made some effect. The 2 gays just got a presidential pardon and are free.

Yes !