This post was submitted by raphael

I hope TNG readers are aware of Uganda’s effort to pass a bill to make homosexuality punishable by death. The  genocide bill is strongly backed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni.

What’s worse, this bill has connections to backers in the United States, not a few of which are in southern California. For example, we have Orange County’s most famous opponent of civil rights, Rick Warren.

Rick Warren

Rick Warren, Obama’s go-to homophobe at the inauguration and pastor of Orange County’s Saddleback Church, has multiple connections to anti-gay efforts in Uganda.

First, Warren’s mentor and dissertation advisor Peter Wagner has been linked with factions in Uganda that lobbied Parliament to take up the genocide bill. Furthermore, he allied himself with Ugandan Pastor Martin Ssempa, who has held public burnings of condoms and outed the names of GLBT Ugandans in an effort to incite violence against them. Ssempa is one of the genocide bill’s biggest cheerleader.

When confronted on the issue, Warren backpedaled, but refused to criticize the genocide bill, claiming it would be inappropriate for him to interfere in political issues (another display of his amnesia related to his campaign for Prop 8).

Update: On 12/10/09, Rick Warren refuted his connection to this bill and condemns it, calling it “unchristian towards homosexuals,” and cleverly points out that pastors could be prosecuted for reaching out to homosexuals:

Matthew Crouch

Matthew Crouch is CEO of Gener8xion Entertainment, a Hollywood-based studio that produces Christian films. He is the son of the founders of the Trinity Broadcasting Network, the national televangelist network based in Orange County. Crouch was hired by the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni (the highest level backer of the genocide bill) in 2005 to publicize the nation’s achievments. It’s not clear that Crouch had direct influence on the push for the genocide bill, but Crouch publicized via twitter that he was in Uganda to meet with Museveni (on May 30) and a council of pastors (on June 11).

Furthermore, Crouch’s studio is listed as the official address of the Ugandan Consulate in the US:

Gener8xion Entertainment, 7095 Hollywood Blvd, Suite 1260, Los Angeles, CA 90068

So there you have it: An LA-based film company, tied to an OC-based broadcasting empire, is the official representative of a potentially genocidal nation in Africa. No word about planned protests at the consulate.

Also, Karen Ocamb at LGBT POV links to an article linking ultra-right wing religious groups in Hollywood to the push in Uganda for a bill calling for the execution of gays and lesbians. Here’s the scoop, as uncovered by SF-based blogger Michael Petrellis.

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