The New Underground Railway

I have a story to share, which I got from my friend Gabi Clayton, in Washington state.  (Walt and I stayed with her and her husband Alec last year when we went to Olympia to see Steve in concert.)

Gabi is one of the founders of a group of Quakers called "Friends New Underground Railroad."  It began in April last year when several people heard from friends in Uganda -- both gay and straight -- that lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered folks were encountering grave threats to their lives and safety and the situation was getting worse because of the impact of the soon-to-be-enacted-anti-homosexuality law.  People were being kicked out of homes, fired from employment, removed from colleges and universities, denied medical care and hospitals, pursued by mobs, beaten, and sometimes killed.  

Gabi writes, "While they understood the risk to their own lives and those of their families, our friends there were prepared in the manner of the Underground Railroad which operated in the United States prior to the Civil War, to conduct people to safety in more welcoming countries."

Gabi and her friends took their concerns to a Quaker meeting and the group adopted the effort to support the work of these brave Ugandans as their own project.  As of today, the group has funded the passage of 715 people (including eight children, six straight allies, and 33 people who identify as transgendered) to flee from Uganda.  Many of them are now in their final countries of destination -- Canada, Sweden, Rwanda, South Africa, Norway, Denmark, South Africa, France, the Netherlands, Germany and Ireland.  Some of their stories can be read here.

That so much pain can be inflicted in the name of Christ is inconceivable and certainly must cause great pain to Jesus himself.

Gabi says "we are still mourning the loss of our conductor, Tony.  Tony was pressed into service when his predecessor, S, was beaten so badly he suffered intracranial hemorrhaging, a broken skull and multiple rib contusions requiring a very difficult medical evacuation.  We understand that S is now in detention in Canada awaiting a hearing on his request for permanent refugee/asylum status.

"Tony was a 35 year old pharmacist with no experience in the matter of leading passengers to safety.  But with his daring, great resolve, and a huge heart for people, in three months, working himself sick, he engineered the escape of almost 280 passengers, including five children.  Returning from his last mission Tony suffered a blood clot in his lung, which was traveling to his heart.  He was operated on successfully, but when he returned to the ward, it was found that he had been doing all of this work with the Friends while suffering from malaria, typhoid, active tuberculosis, worms, bacterial dysentery and severe malnutrition."

Gabi says their work is far from over and that the Ugandan Parliament is very close to voting on a new anti-homosexuality bill, even worse than the last.  Among other provisions, those who house, feed, transport, or assist gay people in any way can be subject to up to 10 years in prison.

"Friends New Underground Railroad is operated by Africans for Africans.  Our role is to tell their stories and to raise funds to support them in the brave and remarkable tasks they have taken on for LGBT Ugandans."

Each escape costs between $55 and $185, depending on the route, mode of transportation, and interim destination.  There have been some other expenses such as medical care and temporary lodging while passengers wait to cross into other countries.

Gabi has asked that her friends share her story and the desperate needs for funds to save as many of these LGBT Ugandans as possible.  So I am publishing the story here and hoping that some will take the time to visit their web site and consider helping a bit.  I know that we are all inundated by requests for worthy causes, but this one is literally a matter of life and death.

It pains me sorely that I am forbidden by Compassion to talk with my 20 year old sponsored Ugandan child, Shallon, about my feelings regarding this hateful bill and the attitude of Ugandan citizens toward LGBT citizens.

Sex Stuff

Did you know that the global sex slavery market generates a $39 billion profit annually?  That selling young girls is more profitable than trafficking drugs or weapons.

Except for some celebrities who have gotten on the bandwagon, this abominable practice must be OK with a lot of God-fearin' Christians.   All those Christians who are lobbying to make it legal to discriminate against gay couples by businesses.  All those Christians who traveled to Uganda to help them set up the "kill the gays" bill which was just signed into law, after softening the language from "death" to "life imprisonment."   Did you know that if you have gay friends and don't tell the government you can be put in jail for seven years?

[In fairness I know this does not represent the views of ALL Christians and that there are good Christians who are appalled as I am at the situation in Uganda and the treatment of gays in this country and around the world, but the vocal Christians unfortunately put a face on Christianity when it comes to this subject]

Did you know that in Uganda, in 2005, 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are sold into sex slavery and that about 50% of those are children.   Sex trafficking is one of the most lucrative and fastest growing crime and generates about $10 billion (in US dollars) a year.


To put it in perspective, the population of Davis is about 65,000 so this is more than 10 towns the size of Davis.  Five of those towns being entirely populated by children.


In Uganda children are commonly taken from rural areas to big cities, where they become bartenders, prostitutes, and a host of other activities, ultimately ending up on the street.  They contract HIV, become teenage mothers.   Many die.

But this is what the newspapers print.

 

And here is what we see in this country

I remember seeing those signs and hearing the angry curses hurled at school children who tried to march to the capitol in Sacramento to talk about their concerns as gay youth in California.  We were marching with them, keeping the protestors from getting too close to the kids.

I don't see massive demonstrations country-wide protesting sex trafficing, selling children into prostitution.  It's probably the media's fault.   I'm sure there are good Christians all over the country who are protesting Uganda's new anti-gay bill and the media just isnt even showing it.  Right?  

And if you believe that, let's talk about that bridge I have for sale.

I am in such a difficult place because I have a sponsored child in Uganda, a 19 year old woman who is on her road to getting her teaching credential.  I want so badly to talk with her about how I feel about the lies that are being spread across her country, especially if she is going to be teaching small children in the future, so that she understands that not everybody agrees with her President. But Compassion International is a Christian organization (which does work against trafficking, at least!) and for all I know some of its members may have been part of that conservative Christian delegation who advised President Museveni to come up with this odious bill in the first place.

I tossed out a trial balloon on the social media site for Compassion sponsors.  In very careful chosen language, using a lot of comments about the inclusion that Jesus believed in and love for all of God's children and asking if it might be appropriate for me to write to Shallon to just let her know my feelings.  I certainly wouldn't wave rainbow flags or anything.   Well...predictably I got lots of feedback about sin and loving the sinner but hating the sin and all the same old crap, some of it ugly.  (How can you say "I have a lot of gay friends, but I do tell them that they are going to hell..." and still have "a lot of gay friends"?) 

The two people who agreed with me mailed me privately so they wouldn't let their feelings be known among the group.   Ultimately, someone did convince me that should Shallon be found with such a letter from me, no matter how carefully it was worded, it could be politically dangerous for her even if Compassion would let her get the letter in the first place (which nobody thought they would do).  So I won't write to her about it but maybe use a lot of "inclusive" language in my letters (since she does read English).

But, I don't know.  Priorities in this country are so screwed.  I look at how long it has taken the gay community to recieve a modicum of legal acceptance as equal to others in this country and now three states are trying to pass that damn "it's OK to refuse service to the gays" law but no large groups are marching to say "it's not OK to buy a 10 year old girl for your sexual pleasure."

Just like at one time blacks couldn't sit at lunch counters and Jews had to be first collected in ghettos, and then sent to death camps and Japanese had to be rounded up and sent to internment camps, actions that most of us are appalled to read about today.

I keep saying that one of my favorite quotes is still, to this day, by Rodney King, "Can't we all just get along?"