Sunday, February 14, 2010

It has been an adventure.  Currently we are meeting with all the organizers of the conference.  They had never all met face to face until now.  The discussion has been fascinating and important.  There was a decision not to march through the streets at the end of the conference because it would be too dangerous.  One professor said, "We would ceertainly be stoned if we do."  Nobody wants to provoke that kind of animosity.  The hope is to have a positive witness for Gay, Lesbian. Bisexual and Transgender (GLBT) people, to gain the support of the people rather than pushing them away.  There will be a petition signing and are developing other plans for follow-up. 

The young man who went to have the banner for the conference printed, returned running as if he were being chased.  He was not being chased, but the printer scared him by asking a lot of questions about his sexual orientation and if he was supporting homosexuality and what he was doing.  The banner has the word "homophobia" on it.  The experience did make some of the organizers here realize that there are real security risks.  On that front, we did meet with a government run security organization (described to me as being like the FBI in the USA) and we are paying them to have 20 security guards at the conference.  They do not expect any problems, but they want to be careful just in case.

We discussed the themes for each speaker and it was fascinating to see the exchange about what to avoid and how far to go in discussiong GLBT rights.  I am taking notes and can write more about that later.  I will be speaking about how someone can be a good Christian and be gay.  They want us to be present to try to neutralize the other American Christians who came here who started this current anti-gay atmosphere that led to the bill.

These are incredibly courageous people!  They are mustering the courage to do what they believe is right, knowing that they cannot predict the consequences. 

Lots of love from Kampala, Uganda,

Marlin