by Sarah Sloan
A recent article in The New York Times describes Ugandan efforts to make homosexuality punishable with hanging. The shocking thing about the news, indeed the point of the article, was that a year ago three American evangelical Christians had spoken to Ugandans about the threat of homosexuality. In so doing, they had helped fan the flames of the anti-gay fervor in Uganda. I was disgusted and horrified when I read the article. Something about Americans being involved, however tenuously, in such an egregious act of persecution made the Ugandan efforts seem much closer to home. It was appalling to think that such intense hatred could spread to the United States, could in fact originate in the United States.
But the more I think about it, the more I believe that attempts to legalize the hanging of homosexuals in Uganda should shock the conscience of the United States, and of the world, whether or not Americans encouraged the attempts. The bottom line is that Uganda is trying to blatantly persecute an entire group of people, and this action threatens not only homosexuals everywhere, but heterosexuals too. Because when the rights of one are violated, the rights of all are compromised.
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