{UAH} John Oliver Dedicates Show to Uganda's Brutal Anti-Gay Laws And America's Responsibility

John Oliver Dedicates Show to Uganda's Brutal Anti-Gay Laws And America's Responsibility (Video)

• 

• Email

  Pinterest 0

LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 29: Host Chris Rock speaks onstage during the BET AWARDS '14 at Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE on June 29, 2014 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images for BET) (Kevin Winter / Getty Images for BET)

Reuters

8:26 a.m. CDT, June 30, 2014

Jun 30 (TheWrap.com) - The same day that the Gay Pride Parade marched down the west side of Manhattan, celebrating the culture and burgeoning equality of America's LGBT community, John Oliver sat in his midtown studio and reminded his “Last Week Tonight†audience that there is still much work to be done â€" and that even as bigotry begins receding in the United States, its long legacy of anti-gay activism has had a major ripple effect across the world.

See video: John Oliver Tackles the Washington Redskins’ Incredibly Racist Team Name

Oliver dedicated over half his show to the issue, running through the oppressive laws in Uganda â€" it is illegal to even be gay in that country, and there has been a vicious crackdown in recent years â€" and tracing those laws back to both the United Kingdom's colonial era, and more recently, the strident activism of far right Evangelical Christians from the United States.

They really are the gift that keeps on giving.

As Oliver noted, we now laugh at many of their Bible-skewing warnings of damnation, but the words of anti-gay activists like Scott Lively really took root in foreign countries; Lively, a Massachusetts author who wrote a somewhat hyperbolic book called “The Pink Swastika,†addressed the Ugandan parliament and spoke on television shortly before new anti-gay laws were passed.

See video: John Oliver and Bill Nye Slam Climate Change Skeptics: ‘Who Gives a Sâ€"t?’

Also targeted was the American government itself, which has given funded to anti-gay activists and churches in Uganda (a rare misstep in foreign seed money). Later, Oliver conducted a long interview with Ugandan gay rights activist Pepe Julian Onziema, who spoke about the brutality against LGBT people in his country (whose perpetrators, weirdly, used the rainbow as a rallying point).

___________________________________

Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower

--
UAH forum is devoted to matters of interest to Ugandans. Individuals are responsible for whatever they post on this forum.To unsubscribe from this group, send email to: ugandans-at-heart+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com or Abbey Semuwemba at: abbeysemuwemba@gmail.com.