The Marketplace of Ideas

For our final project in Issues in Modern American Society, I've decided to focus my attention on the Ugandan legislation known as the "Kill the Gays" bill and its ties to American politics. The bill was introduced in 2009 in the Ugandan parliment yet I am constantly surprised to see that very few people know about this issue. I spoke to nearly 400 people over the course of last week during a presentation that our school's Straight and Gay Alliance deliveres every year and out of all those people only 1 person said that they may have heard of the issue. When I told them that there were people in Uganda who are being persecuted today as we speak, one girl said, "Wait, I thought this happened like, 50 years ago."

As Americans, it's a topic that needs to be addressed because not only is it a clear violation of human rights and international law but we are also extremely involved in this. The Kill the Gays bill has extremely close ties to conservative politicians in America. In fact, the two are so close that the Ugandan sponsor of the bill said that the legislation and a republican conservative group in America known as "The Family" are one in the same.

As the global north becomes more polarized for the advancement of LGBT people (France passing Same-Sex marriage, SCOTUS discussing DOMA and Prop 8), it seems that the South, particularly Africa and Uganda are moving backwards. Why this polarization? This question was answered in a documentary called "God Loves Uganda". I have only read about it but I need to see it. More info to come...