Obama Administration To Take Action In Response To Uganda’s Anti-Gay Law

[Newsjock]

Source: BuzzFeed

The United States will immediately take several key actions involving U.S. funding in response to Uganda’s anti-gay law, multiple sources on and off of Capitol Hill told BuzzFeed.

... The administration has settled on four steps to be taken immediately in response to Uganda’s anti-gay law, sources who were briefed on the matter said. Following the publication of this story, National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Lalley confirmed the steps in an email and provided some additional details on the plans. He said that in addition to the immediate action, the U.S would continue “to look at additional steps we may take, to work to protect LGBT individuals from violence and discrimination, and to urge Uganda to repeal this abhorrent law.”

“As we continue to consider the implications of President Museveni’s decision to enact the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the United States has taken certain immediate steps to demonstrate our support for the LGBT community in Uganda, deter other countries from enacting similar laws, and reinforce our commitment to the promotion and defense of human rights for all people — including LGBT individuals — as a U.S. priority,” Lalley said.

... Money will be shifted away from the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, a group that has publicly come out in support of the anti-gay law and has received millions of dollars in grants from the United States to help fight the HIV/AIDS epidemic. ... Second, because the law makes “promoting homosexuality” illegal, a U.S. funded study to help identify populations at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS has been suspended. ... Third, because any LGBT person or LGBT ally who now enters Uganda is at risk, money intended for tourism programs will be redirected. ... And finally, the Department of Defense had several events scheduled in the country later this spring and those will be moved to other locations.

Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/katenocera/obama-administration-to-take-action-in-response-to-ugandas-a

[jtuck004]

1. Good. What events were scheduled there? "Department of Defense had several events scheduled..." n/t

[sheshe2]

2. Kicked and Recommending!

[Kurovski]

3. Where does it mention how the US exported the inspiration for these laws via The Brotherhood and

the C-Street folks. Seriously, did I miss it?

So interesting, how politics works.

[babylonsister]

4. Umm, I have no time to google; could you elaborate?

Who specifically exported the inspiration, and maybe this is righting something done unjustly?

[Kurovski]

5. The Family hosts the prayer breakfasts no one can manage to stay away from.this is just starters...

That’s Bob Hunter, speaking to Rachel Maddow on Wednesday’s program on behalf of the secretive religious organization that runs the C Street House, known as The Family, or the Fellowship. After decades of silence and denials, Rachel Maddow, and my book on the group’s history, The Family, have forced the organization’s hand. At stake is the group’s relationship to the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill -- the “kill-the-gays” bill -- and how far the Family will go to stop the Ugandan politicians it’s supported from embracing genocide...

The Family/Fellowship has functioned as a political organization ever since it was first formed in the 1930s to elect Arthur Langlie to the office of the Washington governor’s office. It was political when it threw its muscle behind the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act that undid much of the New Deal; it was political when it lobbied vigorously against the creation of Israel; it was political, in 1959, when it arranged U.S. support for the Haitian dictator Papa Doc Duvalier; it was political in the late 60s, when it became the back channel of communication between the Nixon administration and the genocidal regime of Indonesian dictator Suharto; it was political when became a forum through which associates lobbied for billions of U.S. aid to the junta of Brazilian generals in the early 70s; it was political when it sent Senator Chuck Grassley to Somalia (and Uganda) in the early 80s to build U.S. support for the genocidal regime of dictator Siad Barre; and it’s political now, as it struggles to do damage control over the Uganda issue. Sending someone like Senator Jim Inhofe to meet with foreign leaders — readers should know that goes through the State Department — on the taxpayer’s tab is political.



http://www.nbcnews.com/id/34783946/ns/msnbc-rachel_maddow_show/t/uganda-be-kidding-me/#.UzDmqzMo_IU


Jeff sharlet's book "The Family" is terrific

The group believes Gawd has blessed the wealthy, (The holy Kochs) and it is our duty to serve them.

[2banon]

10. Remember when Hillary Clinton attended these prayer meetings?

I'm not sure when exactly she began to attend, but I became aware of it during the Monica Lewinsky scandal. I was thinking :WTF:

It would be interesting to know why she did this. I can speculate for a couple of reasons, like to monitor what the group was actually up to. Or maybe to try and score some points from this group for future political purposes, also maybe to win sympathy.. dunno. it was just weird.

[Kurovski]

11. The Fellowship is extremely powerful.

It's hard to say "no"

I cannot recc the book by Sharlet enough. I wish everyone realized what the deal is.

http://www.powells.com/biblio/9780060559793

The Family is about the other half of American fundamentalist power;not its angry masses, but its sophisticated elites. Sharlet follows the story back to Abraham Vereide, an immigrant preacher who in 1935 organized a small group of businessmen sympathetic to European fascism, fusing the far right with his own polite but authoritarian faith. From that core, Vereide built an international network of fundamentalists who spoke the language of establishment power, a "family" that thrives to this day. In public, they host Prayer Breakfasts; in private, they preach a gospel of "biblical capitalism," military might, and American empire. Citing Hitler, Lenin, and Mao as leadership models, the Family's current leader, Doug Coe, declares, "We work with power where we can, build new power where we can't."

Sharlet's discoveries dramatically challenge conventional wisdom about American fundamentalism, revealing its crucial role in the unraveling of the New Deal, the waging of the cold war, and the no-holds-barred economics of globalization. The question Sharlet believes we must ask is not "What do fundamentalists want?" but "What have they already done?"

[Arkana]

8. Unfortunately, there isn't anything Obama can do about that.

[Kurovski]

9. Sure. Of course. He'd be arrested if he refused to attend a National Prayer Breakfast and said why.

But it's always fun to play the hero when it's easy to do so.

Maybe Carter will speak up. He's been on a roll lately.

[indie9197]

6. Can we just stop giving money to countries and just let them do their own thing.

It can't be worse than what is happening already. Corruption is rampant with our policies. I don't have the answers but what we have been doing is not working.

[Orsino]

7. Money is an opportunity to exert influence.

For good as well as ill.

[seveneyes]

12. Why not an immediate halt to ALL money and assistance?

Screw the 4 step crap. Just wall them off until they get their hate gone.