What is it like to be gay in the world's most homophobic country?

Did you know that Uganda is the world's most homophobic country? A resident of  Central Uganda David Kato was pronounced dead in a street close to his home because of his sexuality. His suffered a long life of discrimination, violence and attacks in which all was approved by the media and government in fact it was even encouraged! In 2009 a Anti Homosexuality Bill was passed stating that the death penalty would be given to any homosexual. Last year the bill was postponed but it still has yet to be vetoed in full. David's friend who was also gay was questioned by his mother if he was possessed by the devil because they have never seen anything of "his kind". Anything he did, the people would report back to his parents and he would be punished. She wanted to go out and make a difference, she teamed up with other homosexuals start a campaign called The fight for LGBT rights. She says that if it was not for the support of the allies of the international community, they would not have gotten this far. David Kato inspired many and has encouraged them to fight for their rights and go against the Ugandan government and defend their rights.

I find this story to be very upsetting. David had no reason to suffer in life and for sure did not deserve to be murdered. I think it is very important for the people of Uganda to speak up and go against their government and defend their rights because no one deserves to suffer the way the homosexuals are in their country. They live everyday in fear and shame and secret and that is not ok. How do you feel about this situation? What do you think they should do to try and gain more access to their rights?

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Boyscouts and Homosexuality

For many years, the Boy scouts of America has been working hard to make sure that pedophiles are kept out of Scouting. These people were put into "perversion files." It has been a longtime goal not to have scoutmasters and volunteers as people who could be potentially dangerous to the welfare of the children. Deron Smith who is the Director of Communciations for the Boy Scouts said that keeping these "perversion files" records has helped keep the organization's policy of excluding gay people from being allowed to be a part of scouting. Even though this policy is very controversial, the Boy Scouts have no intentions in ending it anytime soon. A special committee that consists of scout leaders believes it is the best policy for the organization. 

I have mixed feelings about this policy. I believe it is very important to keep pedophiles out of jobs that involve younger children because it is important to keep the children safe. But, I do not agree with the fact that they do not allow gays to be scoutmasters or volunteers also. Just because someone is gay does not mean they are a pedophile. For example, if a child wants to be a boy scout and his parents are gay then does that mean they are not allowed to get involved with their child's activity? I definitely think that the policy should stay intact, but be changed a bit in order to let innocent homosexuals be a part of an organziation that they feel strongly about and or enjoy participating in. 

Click here to find out more about the perversion files!

Homophobic? Maybe your gay...

Ever think that extreme homophobic people could actually be gay? New studies have shown that gay people say they are homophobic in order to cover up the shame and fear that they have for their sexuality. Sigmund Freud called the process a "reaction formation." A reaction formation is a battle against the symbol of feelings that are being kept inside.  Ted Haggard, an evangelical leader preached that homosexuality was a sin, but ironically resigned after a scandal with a male prostitute. He agrees with Freud in when he apologized about his scandal and his anti-gay act saying that he believes he did it because secretly he was fighting his own war against it.  Scientists have been working on this research at the University of Rochester for the past 15 years. They said that evidence of homosexual urges is seen by subtle verbal cues. The researches started by asking college kids, most of who were women to rate their sexual orientation on a scale from 1 to 10. 10 being completely gay, 5 being bisexual and 1 being totally straight.  They were also required to show how much they agreed with statements like " I would feel uncomfortable having a gay roommate." Or, "Gay people make me nervous." After they were put into different levels based onto their level of gayness and homophobia, they were shown pictures on a computer screen. Some of the pictures were, two women or two men and afterwards a subliminal cue came up onto the screen. On the screen, the words ME or OTHERS would pop up and ME would shorten a student's reaction time for gay imagery. This test is a sign of her homosexuality on a subconscious level. The idea of this research is that it takes people less time to make connections between words or images when the connections conform to prior beliefs. 
Click here for more info about this article and the research they have conducted!

After reading this article, I have found myself to agree with Freud and the research that the University of Rochester has conducted. I find it very weird for people to have an actual fear of homosexuals, I believe that the main fear is becoming a homosexual yourself. I think it is understandable for someone who is straight to find themselves maybe uncomfortable at times when around homosexuals or maybe react differently to comments that a homosexual could make to a straight person, but that is different than calling yourself homophobic. People think that publicly announcing it and making it clear to people that you are "afraid of gays"  will cover up the fact that they are actually gay, but it will not fool me. I found this to be very interesting and I am curious to see end results of the study! 

SUPER- kiss

In the past, there has been a few debates regarding commercials that are appropriate for CBS to play during the Superbowl. In 2007, Snickers released a commercial where two men "Super-kissed" and immediately after freaked out and acted as if it was very bad and gross. This angered many gay watchers. Now the executives of CBS rate kisses and casts on an acceptability meter by unidentified standards. The President of the American Family Association, Tim Wildmon has a very interesting view on this situation. He states, " CBS should not put parents in the position of answering embarrassing and awkward questions from their children while they're just trying to enjoy a football game."  When Tim made this comment, I wonder if he was considering all of the children who have same sex parents or thought of the kids who are personally going through a time where they are questioning their own sexuality. After this big ordeal, CBS then denied a gay dating ad for the Superbowl but approved a pro-life Christian ad. CBS rejected a gay theme ad from GoDaddy.com but allowed Focus on the Family ad which had Christian pro-life football player Tim Tebow as the spokesperson. Going into it, this was not the impression that CBS wanted to make, but they have made it clear that they are more comfortable with conservative Christians rather than Homosexuality. How do you feel about this debate. How would you react if there was a homosexual commercial on a game that is watched all around the world? Do you think CBS should accept all types of ads? Let me know what you think! 

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Below is the Snickers 2007 Superbowl Commercial.