AIM's Kincaid aggressively defends proposed anti-gay Uganda law

Accuracy in Media's Cliff Kincaid has emerged as perhaps the most full-throated defender of Uganda's proposed anti-gay law, which adds Draconian penalties -- including death -- for alleged crimes related to homosexuality. Most recently, Kincaid has been portraying the views of a pair of anti-gay activists in Uganda as representative of all 30.9 million Ugandans, though without offering any evidence that this is the case.

In a February 3 column headlined “Uganda Confronts 'Loud-mouthed Homosexual Lobby,'” Kincaid claims that a “leading pro-family activist in Uganda says that Christians in that East African country need help resisting the schemes of the international homosexual lobby.” This person is the only one he quotes. This was followed by a February 5 column headlined “Uganda Rejects Obama's Pro-Homosexual 'Change,'” in which, again, only one person is quoted, “Ugandan Christian minister Martin Ssempa.” Kincaid doesn't mention that Ssempa has been screening images of gay pornography in Uganda to whip up support for the bill.

In the February 5 column, Kincaid writes: “Accuracy in Media's review of coverage of the so-called 'Kill the Gays' bill in Uganda finds that it has been completely one-sided, inaccurate, and distorted beyond belief. Contrary to press accounts, the legislation is not designed to kill homosexuals but discourage and punish homosexual practices which spread disease and death. Christians in Uganda are trying to build a culture of life and avoid the sexual perversions which have devastated families in the U.S.”

In fact, one of the offenses of “aggravated homosexuality” that would warrant a death penalty in the bill is being a “serial offender,” which the bill defines as “a person who has previous convictions of the offence of homosexuality or related offences.” In other words, if you were convicted of previous homosexual behavior -- or even one of the “related offences” such as “failure to disclose” homosexual acts or “conspiracy to engage in homosexuality” -- and were convicted of it again, you could be put to death.

While there has been much discussion of amending the bill, it has not yet been amended. So as the bill currently stands, despite Kincaid's insistence, mere homosexual behavior is a capital offense under the bill, meaning that it will, in fact, “kill the gays.”

There are other things Kincaid doesn't mention -- for instance, the fact that the bill applies to Ugandans not living in the country. He's also quiet about another inconvenient fact: In Uganda, HIV has historically been spread mostly through heterosexual or mother-to-child contact.

It seems that, when it comes to his own writing, Kincaid doesn't believe in fulfilling the promise of his employer's name.