Happy President's Day 2011

GLO News: 2010 Black Members of Congress on LGBT Issues

(CBC 40th Legislative Session) in Washington, DC

Your 101 Class on What's Really Going On in Uganda

Here are the Cliffs Notes on a past year of Gay, Human & Civil Rights that are being threatened in Uganda. We hope this helps you get up to speed.

October 14, 2009

Anti-homosexual bill in Uganda introduced by David Bahati

February 5, 2010

US condemns Uganda anti-gay law

The Obama Administration called Uganda to task as the African nation considers a law that would criminalise homosexuality. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she had expressed U.S. concerns about the bill to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

February 17, 2010

Anti-gay bill finds support in conservative Uganda

March 25, 2010

International Uproar over Uganda Anti-Gay Bill, Study Finds American Evangelicals Encouraging Homophobia

http://www.democracynow.org/2010/3/25/international_uproar_over_uganda_anti_gay

Proposed anti-gay legislation in Uganda has sparked international uproar. Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the new bill would impose much harsher punishments including life imprisonment and even the death penalty for some homosexual acts. We speak with a leading Ugandan gay rights organizer and a Zambian priest who has documented the role of American evangelicals in fostering homophobia in Uganda.

October 2, 2010

Ugandan media, politicians campaign against homosexuality

Gays and lesbians in Uganda say they are living in fear, targets of a media and political campaign to wipe homosexuality from the face of the East African country. Tabloid newspaper Rolling Stone is spreading anti-gay hatred and identifying gays in Uganda. In its Oct. 2 edition, the newspaper launched a campaign to identify 100 "top homos" in Uganda, adding on the front page, "Hang Them."

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2010/11/22/f-uganda-anti-gay.html#ixzz1CTU2d7oc

December 8, 2010

Rachel Maddow - David Bahati "Kill The Gays" Bill Uganda Sponsor

- Part 1

December 14, 2010

African Americans protest Bahati’s US tour to promote “kill the gays” in Uganda

LGBT People of African Descent and our allies, family and friends are responding to the immediate attack on our fellow brother and sisters in the country of Uganda. The conservative Christian right organization known as The Family and so-called “ex-gay” activist Scott lively exported hatred to Africa with a direct threat to the LGBT community in Uganda by funding and sponsoring the “Anti-Homosexuality” bill which would introduce the death penalty for gay people and require extradition of gay Ugandans around the world.

LGBT communities of color in the USA and across the globe are at greater risk for hate crimes and persecutions. Killing LGBT people in Uganda or anywhere else around the world is wrong.

PLEASE SUPPORT OUR BROTHERS AND SISTER IN UGANDA

Learn more about Frank Mugisha and the POWERFUL work he is doing.

Frank on NPR: (December 20, 2010)

http://www.npr.org/2010/12/20/132147169/anti-gay-atmosphere-permeates-uganda

Happy Martin Luther King Day!!! -- Dare to DREAM

By Maurice Jamal

Today is set aside as a holiday of remembrance for Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr and his tireless work for equality, civil rights and justice. As national and world events occur, one might take a moment and wonder about the current condition of peace, freedom and liberty.

Often when people speak of Dr. King, they discuss "the dream". Not only his landmark speech on civil rights, but the essence and content of his dream. I was reminded today that dreams are limitless. There are no boundaries, hurdles, fears or obstacles that can stand in our way. And dreams are not a child's folly. They are the power of the human spirit reminding us that we can rise above the obvious and move towards the great. Dreams make the impossible, possible.

The work each of us does everyday is part of this dream. It moves us towards a world where equality, acceptance, peace and justice are the norms and not the exceptions. Where regardless of background and sexual orientation, people are not only free to love, live and pursue their liberty, they are encouraged and supported to do so.

This year brought both highs and lows for our community; from the victory of DADT to youth suicides that shook us to our core. And each of you has made a fundamental difference for good in this march towards equity.

A dream is more than an idea, it is permission. It allows someone the ability to craft a world that has everything they could want and desire. It emboldens them to say not only "I can" but "I will" and most importantly "I am".

When we struggle, fight and are working to survive, remember that there are men, women and young people across this country who look at the work you do. They see YOU as evidence that their dream has merit. Your talent, work, dedication and perseverance make a difference. Everyday.

GLO TV may appear to be a digital television network. But it is so much more than that.

It is the dreams of people in small towns, church congregations, school campuses and homes across this nation, who often need a voice to speak for them, an ear to hear them, arms to embrace them, and a heart to welcome them.

It is the reality of what their world can be.

The road ahead is one that we will all walk down together. It is not always easy nor the path always cleared. But it is a road we walk down triumphantly, knowing that every step we take, gives our community permission for them to be bold enough, to dare to dream "I AM".

BE your dream!

Get Your Language RIGHT!!!

YES I AM BLACK

YES I AM PROUD

YES I AM BEAUTIFUL

Kennedy Center Honors 2010: Paul McCartney, Bill T. Jones, Oprah Winfrey honored

Winfrey has become our national confessor, our friendly, neighborhood billionaire philanthropist, the wizard who sprinkles magical dust over every author, entrepreneur, do-gooder and politician within her orbit. What Winfrey doesn't do is as powerful a statement as what she does. How dare she not interview Sarah Palin! The culture, it seems, has declared ownership of "The Oprah Winfrey Show."

Winfrey begs to differ - but only to a point. "I feel it's very much my show in that every decision you see on the show has come from that desk," she says, gesturing toward the pale green, bean-shaped table in her office. "The part that belongs to the culture is every single person who has watched . . . who has found or discovered a piece of light from it. Flecks of light, that's what I call it."

The LGBT College Presidents: 'It Gets Better' (VIDEO)

Their group is just six months old, but members of the LGBTQ Presidents In Higher Education are presenting a strong front in support of gay and lesbian university community members.

LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education mission is to advance effective leadership in the realm of post-secondary education, supports professional development of LGBTQ leaders in that sector, and provides education and advocacy regarding LGBTQ issues within the global academy and for the public at large.

The second Meeting of the LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education took place in Los Angeles on the AULA campus on November 21 and 22, 2010. President Neal King was especially pleased to host the distinguished group of educational leaders.

“Pioneers and progressives by nature and history, and long an extremely LGBTQ affirmative university, AULA was honored to host this august group of courageous men and women who walk their talk and provide needed and impactful leadership in American Higher Education in the area of LGBTQ rights, scholarship, and advocacy,” commented Dr. King.

The aim of this year’s meeting was to make preparations for a panel presentation at the 93rd Annual Meeting of the American Council of Education (ACE) to be held March 5-8, 2011. Over the course of the two-day meeting, the presidents’ presentation addressed the issue of diversity and leadership in higher education. As a participant in the ACE conference, the LGBTQ Presidents in Higher Education will contribute a unique voice to the conference agenda.

Joining the ranks of Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama and Nancy Pelosi, the group sat together -- some with their partners -- to share their challenges and triumphs as openly gay university leaders. Watch below.

Anti-Gay Atmosphere Permeates Uganda reported by NPR

Stephen Wandera/AP

Thousands of children demonstrate against homosexuality in Uganda's capital, Kampala, in January. A bill being considered by the Ugandan Parliament would increase penalties for homosexual conduct and criminalize many related activities.

by Barbara Bradley Hagerty

NPR.com

In October, a tabloid called Rolling Stone — no relation to the American magazine — published an article headlined "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak." The article listed names, addresses and hangouts of gay men and lesbians.

Frank Mugisha saw his photo. Then he noticed the subhead: "Hang them."

"I was shaken up. I was freaked out. I was scared," says Mugisha, who heads up the group Sexual Minorities Uganda. "I'm like, hang them? What is the general Ugandan community going to do to us if the media is calling for us to be hanged?"

On Tuesday, a judge in Uganda is expected to decide whether Rolling Stone may continue to publish the names of gay men and lesbians. Gay activists say that outing them puts them in danger. For example, a couple of days after his name and photo were printed, Mugisha received a text message from a university student.

"It said, 'We don't like homosexuals in Uganda and you guys should be executed. We know where you live, we know who you hang out with, we know who your friends are and we shall come and deal with you as the youth of Uganda.'"

Mugisha was not physically attacked. But others were, says Christopher Senyojo, a retired Anglican bishop who works with gays in Uganda.

Click here to listen to the NPR radio report: Anti-Gay Atmosphere Permeates Uganda

"I know a girl whose house was stoned [and] had to run away for some time from that neighborhood," he says. "I've known people who have been attacked, because after this publication, bad elements started to hunt them down."

Across Africa, gay men and lesbians have been targeted for punishment or violent attacks in Malawi, Zimbabwe, Senegal and Cameroon. But Mugisha says, in Uganda, there's an American connection.

"Homophobia has always existed in Uganda," he says. "But I would say it's greatly increased over the past two years, ever since American evangelicals came to Uganda."

Specifically, he's referring to a conference in March 2009, when three Americans spoke to hundreds of people in Kampala about homosexuality. One of them was Scott Lively, who told the group: "The gay movement is an evil institution. The goal of the gay movement is to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity."

Lively, who declined an interview, heads Abiding Truth Ministries, a conservative evangelical group in Massachusetts that claims people can be healed from homosexuality. On that same trip, Lively met with members of Uganda's Parliament, and a few months later, Parliament member David Bahati introduced a bill that would impose the death penalty on gays.

"I am trying to make sure there is a way to protect our children and make sure our traditional family, the culture that we believe in, is not polluted," Bahati said in an interview. He spoke to NPR while he was in Washington to attend an economic conference, but was prohibited from entering the building where the conference was held after the organizers learned of his bill.

Bahati says the vast majority of Ugandans oppose homosexuality, and he's just representing their views.

"There has been an impression that maybe Bahati is another Hitler, is another Saddam Hussein, is another Idi Amin of Uganda," he said. "I'm not that. I love people. I love gays, but we disagree on how we should approach this issue."

Bahati's bill — which will be considered as early as February — would exact the death penalty for consenting gay adults who are "serial offenders." It would give life imprisonment for touching someone of the same gender in a sexual way, and jail time for anyone — including friends and family — who doesn't turn gay people in.

"If it was passed, it would be terrible," says Senyojo. He believes what the law doesn't do, vigilantes would.

"The mob could definitely attack anybody who they said was a homosexual," he says.

The Obama administration has warned Uganda that this is a bad idea. Bahati says America should mind its own business.

"As God-fearing people, we know that man and woman were created to have a union, and we are very, very, very strong about this," he says. "This is our own view. We respect America for what they believe in. They should also respect Uganda for what they believe in."

Bahati says because of international pressure, he would consider removing the death penalty provisions. He adds that his bill has overwhelming support in the Parliament. But even if it fails, the current law barring "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" carries a penalty of life in prison.

White House staffers' It Gets Better video

by: Bil Browning

bilerico.com

Several LGBT White House staffers including Greg Millett, Senior Policy Advisor at the White House Office of National AIDS Policy got together to make an It Gets Better video. President Obama and Vice President have also both done videos to encourage LGBT kids that things do eventually get better.

This is a great entry to the IGB collective of videos. I've met quite a few of the folks featured and for all of the questioning of Obama's commitment to LGBT rights, they are some of the most dedicated advocates we could ask for. They bring LGBT issues to the White House daily.

And they're living proof that it does indeed get better.