Uganda anti Gay Bill
In the last 2 weeks religious extremists have been trying to get a bill passed in Uganda, that basically makes acts of homosexuality punishable by the death penalty.
There was a huge outcry from international and local human rights, and this led to pressure being put on the Ugandan government.
The social media also got behind this and emails and Facebook and Twitter messages were posted and many people encouraged their friends to sign the petition. This petition, which had 1.6 million signatures, was then handed to the Ugandan Parliament.
Avaaz
Here is a letter from Avaaz.org when the bill was shelved.
Dear friends,
Frank Mugisha and other brave human rights defenders delivering our petition to the Ugandan Parliament just before leaders dropped the gay death penalty law.
Uganda’s anti-gay law has failed! It looked sure to pass last week, but after 1.6 million petition signatures delivered to Parliament, tens of thousands of phone calls to our own governments, hundreds of media stories about our campaign and a massive global outcry, Ugandan politicians dropped the bill!It was down to the wire – religious extremists tried to push the bill through on Wednesday, and then convened an unprecedented emergency session of Parliament on Friday. But each time, within hours, we reacted. A huge congratulations to everyone who signed, called, forwarded and donated to this campaign – with our help, thousands of innocent people in Uganda’s gay community do not wake up this morning facing execution for whom they chose to love.
Frank Mugisha, a courageous leader of the gay community in Uganda sent us this message:
“Brave Ugandan LGBT activists and millions of people around the world have stood together and faced down this horrendous anti-homosexuality bill.The support from the Avaaz global community has tipped the scales to prevent this Bill going forward. Global solidarity has made a huge difference.”
The EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs’ Office also wrote to Avaaz:
“Many thanks. As you know, thanks to a very large extent to the intensive lobbying and combined effort of you, other civil society representatives, EU and other governments, plus our delegation and embassies on the ground the Bill was not presented to the Parliament this morning.”
This fight is not over. The extremists behind this bill could try again within just 18 months. But this is the second time we’ve helped defeat this bill, and we’ll keep going until the hate-mongers give up.
Transforming the deeper causes of ignorance and hatred behind homophobia is an historic, long term struggle, one of the great causes of our generation. But Uganda has become a front line in that struggle, and a powerful symbol. The victory there echoes across many other places where hope is desperately needed, showing that kindness, love, tolerance and respect can defeat hatred and ignorance. Again, a huge thanks to all who made it happen.
Most of us use social networking for fun. It is good to know that Facebook and Twitter can be used for good like it was in Egypt and other countries that are fighting against oppression. Well done let’s keep fighting for Uganda.
