Homophobia spreads in Rwanda
Rwanda is planning to enact homophobic legislation in line with that currently being debated in Uganda, UK gay humanist charity the Pink Triangle Trust (PTT) announced this week.
A debate is being held on a draft revision of the Rwandan penal code that will, for the first time, make homosexuality a crime. A vote on this draft code will occur before the end of this week. PTT said the proposed Article 217 of the draft Penal Code Act will criminalise ‘any person who practises, encourages or sensitises people of the same sex, to sexual relations or any sexual practice’. It will impose prison sentences of between five and 10 years for those convicted of homosexual acts. If the Chamber of Deputies approves, the draft code will likely go before the Rwandan Senate in
early 2010.
“It is extremely worrying to learn that Uganda’s neighbour seems to have caught the homophobic bug, no doubt spurred on by malign religious influences. It is hardly surprising that a large majority of Rwandans are Roman Catholic and that the Catholic Church has been one of the most dominating institutions in Rwanda for many decades,” PTT secretary George Broadhead said.
The PTT has previously sent a letter of protest about the Ugandan legislation to that country’s High Commissioner in the UK, Joan Rwabyomere. It has now protested to the Rwandan ambassador to the UK, Claver Gatete.
Are the Christian churches the main source of homophobia?
As far as I know all religions encourage the persecution of homosexuals. I do not know of any religion that advocates tolerance of homosexuals.
Any organisation that encourages its members to hate a particular group in society is responsible for the actions of its members.
In Australia the religious organisations actively campaign to deny homosexuals their fundamental human rights, such as marriage.
The religious organisations in Australia are not held responsible for the actions of their members when those members persecute homosexuals because most of the people who operate the three powers in society, government, police and the judiciary, are members of religious organisations and those people corrupt the law to protect their religious organisations from being associated with the criminal actions of their members.
In my experience the source of homophobia is cultural and not religious.
I have visited the Philippines, which is a predominantly catholic society, and I found that the Filipino people are not homophobic. Homosexuals can live freely and openly there without fear of persecution.
That experience led me to conclude that homophobia is a cultural phenomenon not necessarily caused by the doctrines of the Christian churches.
I concluded that because the Filipino people are not culturally homophobic the religious organisations there do not encourage homophobia.
The opposite is true in Australia.
The Australian people are culturally homophobic and the religious organisations here encourage homophobia to remain popular and relevant with the Australian people.
Bill – We in the gay community have memories, We remember the groups who opposed the decriminalisation of homosexuality for many years. In fact just recently in 2008 numerous religious groups opposed the removal of basic discrimination against us, so to claim or suggest that religion is not a problem to us GLBT people is just pure arrgonance.
“The fact is that any person in secular Australia can live their lives in complete detachment from all religious influence if they so choose and the claim that any particular religious group is causing the Gay community any specific harm on a day to day basis is FALSE!!!”
The above statement is false. The Catholic pushes its anti-gay agenda when it comes to same-sex marriage (see the submissions to the recent Senate inquiry), previously in regard to the equalisation of the age of consent in NSW and elsewhere and in its schools – even though it receives taxpayer’s money (ie: my money).
Well excuse me ladies.
The Catholic Church is lead by the Vatican, the Head of that says we must fight homosexuality like climate change, he is a former Hitler Youth and that group killed many people simply for being from our community, in official Vatican documents they accept we are born gay, but we lend ourselves to Evil by engaging in gay activities, it is this sort of rubbish that is Evil in my view.
Further when it comes to our basic human rights such as Gay Marriage, we have to put up with homophobic submissions to enquiries from Australian Representatives of the Catholic Church. Look through the articles on the SSO website about it! Go look at what the Catholic Church said to try and stop the decriminalization of homosexuality.
Further, some Australian Christian Lobby Members such at the Australian Familiy Association published on there website that we are a Cancer and have to be eradicated. It took a long time for them to drop this. Yet we see the Catholic Church giving money and support to the Australian Christian Lobby that makes untrue claims about us.
Now calling what we do Evil or supporting hate groups in my view is promoting hate and violence. Hiding under religous freedom to persecute us and attacking us, at government enquiries, lends itself to a pattern of behavior that is homophobic. Having my partner bashed to death by people inspired by that sort of hate is disgraceful and I know the consequences as I bloody felt them.
Has the Catholic Chuch in Rwanda called the legislation Evil? Has it attacked it officially? No.
Most Catholics are very good people who contribute a lot to society in many areas, but they are led by a horrible bunch in my view the futher up the skirt of the church leaders you go. Lets face it if your average priest invoked the full Vatican rules then parishners would be very hard to find.
To say the Gay Community is Catholic Bashing is a bit rich given what the Catholic Church has done to our community for centuries, and continues to do where the opportunity presents. Even my local Xavier High School at Albury published a newsletter calling on the world to be rid of homsexuals!
Cut off al ties and aid to Rwanda if this bill/law gets passed.But then again wasn’t it just a minute ago that 2 miilion people were killed with machetes etc etc in about one day.SO no suprise that they would consider bills like this.Imbeciles.
I would like to add that Catholicism is the biggest religion in Rwanda and this has the support of many of the Church leaders. They are supporting this hate legislation and giving church resources for it. We must fight Catholic Representatives such as the leaders in Australia that would have us down this path if they had more power and influence. They have clearly shamed humanity along with Kevin Rudd for his silence.
To David Skidmore
I’ve been reading articles on the SSO site for a long time and it appears that you’re a person with a lot to say.
So could you explain to me why this quote from the article does not constitute Catholic bashing and is not relevant.
“It is hardly surprising that a large majority of Rwandans are Roman Catholic and that the Catholic Church has been one of the most dominating institutions in Rwanda for many decades,” PTT secretary George Broadhead said”
Where is the smoking gun laying all of this at the feet of the Catholic Church in Rwanda like an official document from the Rwandan Catholic Bishop’s Conference? Nowhere, because no such document exists. Catholic bashing is obviously the most popular sport for many in the Gay community in this country and around the world.
Furthermore, explain to me if you would be so kind when it was that a Catholic Priest and a group of nuns burst into your home in the middle of the night, dragged you out of bed, bashed you senseless a then performed an exorcism on you to try and drive the vile gay demon out of you.
You can’t tell me because such a thing never happened in modern secular Australia to you or any other Gay person and the Catholic Church holds no such beliefs. Granted such things did probably happen in medieval Europe centuries ago along with the burning of heretics and women accused of being witches. But the Catholic Church itself has long since apolized and condemned it’s own actions in those times. So when people like you spew out rhetoric suggesting that such things still hapen today then you have no credibilty.
The fact is that any person in secular Australia can live their lives in complete detachment from all religious influence if they so choose and the claim that any particular religious group is causing the Gay community any specific harm on a day to day basis is FALSE!!!
Daved
You’ve made some vey powerful alegations:
To qoute you directly
“The Catholic Church is responsible for many bashings and deaths of people who are gay.”
“If representatives in Australia did not go about causing such misery and deaths, then maybe we could all just get along”
What specific evidence can you produce to back up these accusations?
Bill,
I have found the average Catholic very tolerant, in fact some are gay, but the representatives of the Church in Australia are not tolerant. I and others have formed a very strong view of the Catholic Church by what its representatives have done.
The Catholic Church is responsible for many bashings and deaths of people who are gay. The Pope has said recently that we must fight homosexuality like Climate Change. The Catholic Church inspires hate around the world.
If you read the Catholic Representative submissions in the Gay Marriage Enquiry, and the presentation they did, you will find the Catholic Church is officially not tolerant and full of hate for people who happen to be homosexual. In there words we cannot have marriage because “It belongs to us”. Given they are led by a former Hitler Youth what else do we expect.
The Catholic Chuch has to earn the respect of our community. We are not Evil but what the Pope does is. If representatives in Australia did not go about causing such misery and deaths, then maybe we could all just get along. In the meantime we will stand up and fight people who activily seek to deny us human rights and promote hate and violence, in any country in the world we will seek to stop this. Clearly there is a lot more gay bashing by the Catholic Chuch then Catholic Bashing by gay people.
I fail to see the relevance of the first comment. At any rate, this gay is not asking for acceptance from the Catholic Church. I’m demanding the Catholic Church minds it’s own damned business – as are gays in place like Rwanda where it has too much political power.
Of course this story is disturbing but when will the Gay community realize that continuously bashing, ridiculing and defaming the Catholic Church achieves nothing towards their struggle for tolerance and acceptance!!!