More Anti-Gay Lunacy in Uganda

I did a post the other day about the anti-gay conference being held in Uganda under the umbrella of the government and religious nutcases. Well things have gone from disturbing to the downright deranged with hate group leader Scott Lively making more pronouncements that suggest he needs to be institutionalized and quickly. Meanwhile, Exodus International remains a player in the conference - if one can call it that - with a sitting board member, Don Schmierer, in attendance. Remarks have gone from urging "forced ex-gay therapy" to now blaming gays for genocide and a rehash of Lively's thoroughly discredited book, The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party. By not running screaming from the conference and by not denouncing Lively's insane statements, Schmiere is confirming that Exodus International is indeed a lunatic fringe organization. After this circus, anyone who cites Exodus as a credible source needs to have their head examined. Would that the American media would take a good look at Lively since he represents the unvarnished face of the anti-gay Christian Right. Here are some highlights from coverage at Box Turtle Bulletin:

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American Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively provided the much-anticipated red meat on day three of the anti-gay conference taking place in Kampala. On Saturday, Lively repeated his discredited historical revisionist theory in which he claims that the cornerstone of Germany’s Nazi lies firmly in the gay movement, and that the gay movement today, if left unchecked, will result in a similarly murderous fascism wherever it goes. In Kampala, he went further by expanding his examples of what he calls homosexuals’ murderous impulse by blaming the 1994 Rwanda genocide on gay men.

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Lively’s book also goes beyond Nazi Germany, claiming that Nazis’ murderous tendencies wasn’t an aberration of homosexuals’ power, but a natural consequence of it. He claims that American “homosexuals are responsible for 68% of all mass murders” in America.

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Lively was asked about the current state of Ugandan law, which provides for a life sentence for homosexuality. Lively reportedly approved of the existing law, and endorsed adding a provision mandating forcing convicted gay men and women into ex-gay therapy. Conference speakers had called for such a law on the second day of the conference.

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The threat to “‘wipe out’ gay practices” is not an idle threat in a nation that provides a life sentence for those convicted of homosexuality. Further, Uganda witnessed at least three separate campaigns of government sanctioned and media-led vigilantism between 2005 and 2007. The last spate of violence was sparked by a press conference of LGBT leaders calling on the nation to simply allow gays and lesbians to live in peace. The LGBT leaders at the conference wore face masks out of fear of being identified.

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Schmierer’s participation at that conference, absent any other statement from Exodus’ board and leadership, appears to constitute at least an implicit endorsement of that policy, if not overt endorsement.

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I concede that Scott Lively is a severe nutcase. However, what he speaks is in reality no different than what the majority of our anti-gay opponents think. They are merely more discrete and mindful of sounding at least partially sane to the media.