Will the Commonwealth Split Over Anti-Gay Sentiments?
I was reading an article on the Globe & Mail website detailing the Ugandan governments' proposed new law that would criminalize homosexuality, mandating life imprisonment for being gay or lesbian. The law also proposes putting in jail anyone who knows about someone who is gay or lesbian and doesn't report it, plus the death penalty to anyone who is gay with AIDS and has sex.
I don't think it's unreasonable to say that such a law is despicable and is fuelled by hate, superstition, and religious intolerance. The Commonwealth is meeting in Trinidad and Tobago this week and the President of Uganda happens to be the chair of the event which is sure to have human rights activists working overtime to get the message across that the more Liberal members of the Commonwealth must denounce this law.
How can the Commonwealth continue to act as a functioning, or even relevant entity if there are fundamentally polarizing issues between more progressive countries like Canada, Britain, and Australia and those like Uganda in Africa and many other Caribbean nations? How can this group still function when basic Human rights are so cavalierly thrown to the wind based on nothing more than superstition and ignorance?
There have been other threats in to Human Rights in Africa in the past such as witch hunts and the murder of albinos and what has the Commonwealth done? A few strongly worded statements.
I remember working for a winery in the fields, pruning and tying the vines with a few guys from Jamaica and they were incredibly anti-gay even going so far as to say that there were absolutely no gay Jamaicans which made me laugh to myself. As a contrast to that particular memory, I had gone out to lunch with a priest who is friend of mine and old teacher and I asked about his stance on gay marriage. He said to me that on a list of a hundred things on his mind it was number 105, and while he didn't come out publicly in support of gay marriage it certainly didn't bother him.
Even though my little anecdote doesn't prove anything about official government stances on this particular issue, I believe that if we can reach the right decisions, why can't we uphold them internationally?
I don't think it's unreasonable to say that such a law is despicable and is fuelled by hate, superstition, and religious intolerance. The Commonwealth is meeting in Trinidad and Tobago this week and the President of Uganda happens to be the chair of the event which is sure to have human rights activists working overtime to get the message across that the more Liberal members of the Commonwealth must denounce this law.
How can the Commonwealth continue to act as a functioning, or even relevant entity if there are fundamentally polarizing issues between more progressive countries like Canada, Britain, and Australia and those like Uganda in Africa and many other Caribbean nations? How can this group still function when basic Human rights are so cavalierly thrown to the wind based on nothing more than superstition and ignorance?
There have been other threats in to Human Rights in Africa in the past such as witch hunts and the murder of albinos and what has the Commonwealth done? A few strongly worded statements.
I remember working for a winery in the fields, pruning and tying the vines with a few guys from Jamaica and they were incredibly anti-gay even going so far as to say that there were absolutely no gay Jamaicans which made me laugh to myself. As a contrast to that particular memory, I had gone out to lunch with a priest who is friend of mine and old teacher and I asked about his stance on gay marriage. He said to me that on a list of a hundred things on his mind it was number 105, and while he didn't come out publicly in support of gay marriage it certainly didn't bother him.
Even though my little anecdote doesn't prove anything about official government stances on this particular issue, I believe that if we can reach the right decisions, why can't we uphold them internationally?
Leave a comment