Ugandan Embassy - Washington D.C. Saturday December 1, 2012
Several more than a dozen activists held vigil on the sidewalk in front of the Ugandan Embassy on Saturday to protest the "Kill the Gays" bill in the Uganda Parliament. A vote is expected before the end of session in mid December. The speaker of that body promises passage as a "Christmas gift" to the Ugandan people.
Light Brigade Maryland, Peace House, Amnesty International and Get Equal do not see this bill as a gift. Individuals from all these group stood for more than an hour displaying the message "Reject Ugandan Homophobia" to engage other Washingtonians in the conversation.
Legislators in the United States connected to the "C Street House", according to Metro Weekly & Rachael Maddow of MSNBC, are linked to the encouragement of getting this bill passed.
Light Brigade Maryland organized this "light party" to keep up the international condemnation of this bill which provides a death penalty to those involved in serial same-sex acts. There has been some discussion that the penalty has been changed to a life in prison, but social justice advocates around the world condemn this bill as movement in the wrong direction. "This simply is not justice. It is knee-jerk homophobia at its worse," said Mark Patro, lead organizer for Light Brigade Maryland.
One participant held a sign saying, "Uganda, Arrest me too." This is the tag line from a Get Equal campaign. Get Equal is currently circulating a petition http://org2.democracyinaction.org/...
attempting to get U.S. officials who support the bill to back off. These official come from a conservative evangelical perspective.
Light Brigade Maryland was established as a vehicle to promote the passage of the Marriage Equality in Maryland which was successful. LBM is now transforming itself to become active in other social justice messaging. Some of those topics are income equality, stopping gun violence, Protecting whistle blowers and passage of gender identity legal protections.
You can find Light Brigade Maryland here: https://www.facebook.com/...