Turkish LGBTQ protestors and human rights activists in İstanbul, Turkey, 2008.
Yes, the anti-homosexuality bill is back on the table in Uganda, and murder is in the air. Imagine. If the bill passes and you’re queer in Uganda, your neighbors can get you killed. If the bill passes, one tender gesture — the touch of a hand, the stroke of a back — could threaten your very existence. And frankly, things are hard enough already. Apparently, a gay couple who just got married in Sweden and believe they are the first gay Ugandans to get hitched, have family back in Uganda who are being harassed for having a gay relation. (News received via BuzzFeed LGBT.)
What’s more, this morning, Obama had breakfast with a group that allegedly backs the “Kill the Gays” bill in Uganda. Activists and activist groups heeded the president to boycott this event, but to no avail. If this group were allegedly backing a racist bill or a sexist bill, would Obama still attend the breakfast? I doubt it.
See, one of the problems with a society that denigrates consensual sex, viewing it as trivial or disgusting, is that sexuality becomes denied and abused. Prudes can say, until they’re blue in the face, that we shouldn’t write, share or show sexual arousal, but I believe the very opposite. Unless we start to treat erotica, ethical–yes, ethical–porn, and ethical, consensual sex work, with pride and respect, people who are in touch with their sexuality will be slandered, murdered, and attacked. If not here, then somewhere else. Well, as many of us know, one way to show that you’re proud of sexuality is to be unafraid in your openness. That’s one of the reasons we began Go Deeper Press. Because we refuse to be ashamed.
Folks, we’re looking at another Hitler situation. Just as Hitler aimed for the Aryan race, Uganda aims for the Heterosexual race. And it seems that there is a less stringent bill proposed in Russia, in which, nevertheless, queer rights demonstrations would be punished. And if our president will still have breakfast with those who allegedly support the proposed bill in Uganda, what does that say about his own respect for sexuality? How strong will he be if this bill is implemented? Will he help to defend the innocent, or no?
And if we think that this “Kill the Gays” bill has nothing to do with Americans, it might surprise you to hear that the man who apparently calls himself the “father” of the anti-gay movement in Uganda is a white American, born and bred in Massachusetts…where Go Deeper Press itself is based.
Folks, whether queer, straight, poly, kinky, or other, we need to openly be proud of our sexual richness. This isn’t just a matter of making the world sex-positive. It’s a matter of life and death. Because if this can happen in Uganda, it can happen elsewhere. And the merest glance at the psychology of homophobia reveals that those who are fighting their own gay longings are the ones who are most stringently anti-gay.
Let’s show them what true pride is. And let’s do it now.
Thanks for hanging out with Go Deeper Press, who publish sex-positive erotica with a political slant. Find out more about our e-books here.
Photo by Turkish Flame via Wikimedia Commons
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