Timothy Kincaid of Box Turtle Bulletin finds that the leader of last week’s antigay Ugandan antigay conference, which was co-keynoted by Exodus International board member Don Schmierer, is using Ugandan media to spread anger and fear in Uganda with unsubstantiated smears equating opponents of draconian antigay laws with pedophiles.
According to one such media report:
Family Life Network and other stakeholders last week organized a seminar and series of meetings on the subject of homosexuality. The Executive Director of Family Life Network Stephen Langa, participants received shocking and worrying revelations about the level of defilement and recruitment of school boys and girls into homosexuality and lesbianism.
Langa says in a statementhttp://www.truthwinsout.org/wp-admin/edit.php that some parents asked if there is any safe school in Uganda, given the level of immorality and organized rackets in schools. According to the statement from the workshop, the information available indicates that both day schools and boarding schools are affected by this vice.
The antigay Ugandan media have thus far failed to demand that Langa substantiate his accusation, nor have they independently investigated the conditions in schools. Homosexuality is punishable in Uganda with life imprisonment, and extrajudicial mob executions have been reported by human rights observers. The killings are motivated by anger generated by defamatory media reports such as this one.
Langa is spearheading a March 15 meeting that will announce a campaign to “wipe out” homosexuality in Uganda.
Read more at Box Turtle Bulletin.
Addendum: The Southern Poverty Law Center has been monitoring Uganda’s historically violent antigay campaigns — and U.S. ex-gay leaders’ support of the latest such campaign.
