What Scares Me, 2010 Edition

The Bottom Line Apathy kills people. Past voter apathy is killing people in Uganda right now. Vote, and vote wisely.

What Scares Me.

Halloween was yesterday, Midterm Elections are tomorrow. As a gay man in America, I can tell you which day I find scarier.

One of the things that really scares me is how things "die down". Uganda was posed to pass legislation that would make homosexuality a capital crime. We have heard relatively little about that African nation in recent months. Most Americans think that the crisis is over, that public outcry restored sanity, and that Uganda is on the right track once more. How I wish it were so.

A Ugandan Newspaper, The Rolling Stone (no affiliation with the American Version) recently ran a report entitled "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos" complete with names, addresses, photos, a story about how they were 'recruiting new homos' by raiding schools, and a banner that reads "Hang Them!" The government quickly moved in and shut them down.

Sadly, it was because they were not registered with the proper governmental authorities. The Rolling Stone completed the proper paperwork and then came out with "Men of Shame II" a list of ten more suspected homosexuals, their names, addresses, photos, an article that reads, "A cross-section of heartless homosexuals is seriously recruiting and brainwashing unsuspecting kids into gay circles," and the yellow banner reading "Hang Them!" Most of the 100 have gone into hiding. Four have been viciously attacked. Many cannot come out of their homes because people are throwing stones at them. Of the many in hiding, it is feared that several are "Vanished."

Further, David Bahati, author of the Kill the Gays Bill, and member of the super secretive THE FAMILY, says that he has great hopes the bill will be passed. They are just waiting for "the right time."

What makes the tragedy in Uganda all the more sickening is that much of it was funded by American Tax Dollars. "In the past decade, Sen. Jim Inhofe of Tulsa has made at least 20 trips to Africa as part of a mission that he frequently describes in religious terms.
Inhofe's African trips have cost taxpayers more than $187,000 since 1999, according to a review of expenses Inhofe and staff members have submitted through the Armed Services Committee.

He said he has helped get food to severely malnourished children in Ethiopia, brought leaders together to resolve disputes, helped get military training for some African countries' forces, and focused attention in Congress on corrupt regimes and atrocities.

He has also used the official travel for fellowship activities related to the low-profile religious organization that puts on the National Prayer Breakfast. (The Family)

"I'm guilty of two things," Inhofe said in a recent interview. "I'm a Jesus guy, and I have a heart for Africa.""

He also helped derail the highly successful ABC program (Abstinence, Be faithful, use a Condom) replacing it with Abstinence only programs. As a result, the new AIDS infection rate has gone up from 5% (under ABC) to 15%. Your tax dollars at work in the world. Nor is he alone. Here is a partial list. It can't be exhaustive, because The Family is so secretive.

Members currently in the US Congress
Sam Brownback Sen. (R-KS) Chair of Senate Values Action Team
James Inhofe Sen. (R-OK)
Jim DeMint Sen. (R-SC) Chairman of Steering Committee
Chuck Grassley Sen. (R-IA) Former Chairman of Finance Committee
Richard Lugar Sen. (R-IN) Former Chairman, Foreign Relations Committee
John Ensign Sen. (R-NV) Involved in sex scandal
Tom Coburn Sen. (R-OK) Acted as go between for Sen.Ensign and his mistress and her family.
Mark Pryor Sen. (D-AR)
Bill Nelson Sen. (D-FL)
John Thune Sen. (R-SD)
Mike Enzi Sen. (R-WY)
Joe Pitts Rep. (R-PA) Chair of House Values Action Team; Member Committees on Energy & Commerce, Sec. & Coop in Europe
Todd Tiahrt Rep. (R-KS)
Frank Wolf Rep. (R-VA) Member of House Appropriations Panel
Zach Wamp Rep. (R-TN)
Mike McIntyre Rep.(D-NC)
Bart Stupak Rep. (D-MI) Author of the Stupak-Pitts Amendment for the Affordable Health Care for America Act that would ban federal funding for abortions
Michael F. Doyle Rep. (D-PA)
Heath Shuler Rep.(D-NC)
Jerry Moran Rep. (R-KS)

Further, this latest atrocity has gotten almost no attention. We are much more concerned with our very real fears here at home, where Sharron Angle (Let's outlaw abortion even in cases of rape and incest, if things don't change, let's exercise those 2nd Amendment remedies), Ken Buck (Supports a weakening of the separation of Church and State, Constitutional Amendment banning abortion, repeal of the 17th Amendment) and Rand Paul (Let's privatize Social Security) and their buddies on the extreme right have been occupying our attention.

The Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdock have literally spent billions to make sure that the conservative white man is scared to death of anyone with more melanin than he, that somehow, his rights and freedoms and jobs are going to be taken away. They want them out there, scared to death, voting.

You should be scared of that, and voting.

I'm just scared that not enough of you will.

My Political Observations.

Kill A Queer For Jesus

Kill A Queer For Jesus, But We Don't Mean That In a Bad Way.

Whose Afraid of Virginia?