Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 50

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Popular Culture Review
population suddenly stop marrying and creating traditional families? Will
divorce, remarriage, and the nontraditional1 families they create suddenly
become extinct as well?
It would seem far more likely that the marriage of fundamentalist
religion to ultra-conservative political ideology espoused by groups such as FOF
can destroy families and lives. It is already doing so in parts of Africa where
religion holds sway over governments that reject the idea of “equal civil rights.”
In 2003 I began corresponding with a 25-year-old Ugandan. He was an
accomplished dancer, musician, painter, and sculptor living in Kampala. S ome
of his art had been purchased by the President of Uganda. He was finishing his
studies in Organizational Studies at the university. The future looked bright,
until his evangelical Christian parents discovered he was gay. His lawyer father
informed the police and had his son arrested. According to Kamal Fizazi,
Regional Program Coordinator for Africa and Southwest Asia, International Gay
and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, “Ugandan law punishes same-sex love
with life imprisonment. Under this harsh law, even individuals who elude
imprisonment face constant fear, stigmatization, and the threat of extortion by
the police.”
Upon release—pending further legal action—straight friends
abandoned him and he was dismissed by dance companies and barred from art
exhibits that received public funds, which virtually all of them did. His family
disowned him and his unfinished art was destroyed. Homeless, broke and alone,
naturally he considered suicide, but felt “God” had something planned for him.
Finally, after months of harassment, re-arrests, and releases pending
further legal action, the police appeared at the home of the woman where he’d
been hiding. Since he couldn’t pay the officers the 1.5 million Ugandan shillings
(about $756 US) they required to “lose” his file, he was told to leave the country
or be arrested. But because of his arrest record he could not leave the country.
Two days later I lost touch with him. Some time later I learned his fate: arrested,
convicted, sentenced to life without parole. But his life sentence lasted only ten
days. He was beaten to death in prison by a group claiming to be doing “God’s
work.” One of the last e-mails I received from him ended with:
PS: there is no hope to find help/refuge from churches here.
They are very much against us and since the church in
America embraced a gay bishop it has become almost the
main topic of condemnation in the churches all over here. It’s
all very terrible and disgusting and I believe they are all just
selfish and with hatred hearts —yet claiming to be of God!! I
don’t go to churches here any more.2
Dr. Dobson asserts that homosexual marriages will “quickly” destroy
traditional families. Legal same-sex marriages have been occurring in