Thursday, January 27, 2011

LaBarbera makes Scott Lively out to be a victim in wake of Ugandan murder

Apparently I was a couple of hours too late when I wondered whether or not someone from the religious right would make a statement about David Kato's murder:











Not even a word for sorrow for Kato. How nice.

For the record, many of us never felt that Palin was the blame for what happened in Tucson. I personally felt that she got of the blame - unfair it may have been - because of  her gung-ho attitude and reliance on nasty rhetoric. She exploited that image to gain prominence, so subsequently what happened was a classic case of the image backfiring on her.

Lively, on the other hand, isn't such a victim or circumstance.

He was one of the Americans who came to Uganda to hold anti-gay rallies  which pushed all sorts of lies about lgbts. These lies got folks stoked up and led to the infamous "Kill the Gays" bill.

The bill sent everything into a fever pitch, culimating with lgbt Ugandans having definite fear for their lives in the backdrop of rabid homophobes holding marches with children, spreading nasty propaganda about gay sex in churches, and publishing people's pictures in a newspaper while advocating their murders simply because they are lgbts.

Kato was one of those people whose picture was published.

Say what you will, Lively is not the victim here. And if LaBarbera was any type of decent Christian, he would have least said a word of concern for Kato.

It's sad that Kato's murder is the end result of how one person's hatred can cause a situation that he may not have intended to happen.

And what's sadder is the simple fact that those who should learn from this tragedy, i.e. LaBarbera and company, seem to be ignoring the lesson of pushing hate.

Related post:

Slouching Towards Kampala: Uganda’s Deadly Embrace of Hate - Box Turtle Bulletin's excellent report on the homophobia in Uganda from the beginning to where we are now.

One more thing - I nearly held back from writing this post because I knew that some folks may feel the need to write LaBarbera and give him a peace of their mind. If you can't do this in a mature way, please don't bother. Hatred only breeds in places where rationality is absent. We know that LaBarbera has taken up root in these places. There is no need for us to compound his ignorance.


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