Jacksonville Abstinence-Only Program Has Ties to Uganda "Kill the Gays" Pastor

Welcome to Jacksonville, Florida, where a federally-funded abstinence-only program taught to more than 50,000 students has some shady and scary ties to a Ugandan pastor who wants to see gay people locked up in jail forever or executed.

Andy Kopsa over at The Florida Independent has an amazing investigative piece looking at the organization Project SOS, an abstinence-only program founded in 1993 by a woman named Pam Mullarkey. Turns out Mullarkey is best buds with a pastor in Uganda who has been championing a piece of legislation known as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. That pastor? Martin Ssempa, the religious leader who travels around the country showing graphic pornography to men, women and children in order to whip up anti-gay sentiment, and who has said that LGBT people in the country deserve to be locked up in prison for life, or sentenced to the death penalty.

Ssempa's beliefs have been criticized the world over, and he's been marginalized by many religious leaders who once used to work with him. But that's not the story with Pam Mullarkey, who in addition to founding Project SOS, still serves on the organization's board of directors. In fact, Mullarkey has praised Martin Ssempa, and a quote from her is even featured on Ssempa's own web site.

"Martin Ssempa is the man to watch. He’s the most powerful voice for abstinence in the world and his passion, charisma and character make his vital message irresistible," Mullarkey says of the minister who wants to see LGBT people locked up in prison forever or killed. Now that's some charisma.

Now comes the real kicker though: Mullarkey's Project SOS has received some major funding from the U.S. Health and Human Service Department. Since 2002, Project SOS has received upwards of $6.5 million in federal funding, most recently in September 2010, when a $454,000 grant was given to the organization. All of that essentially means that an organization whose founder praises the work of one of the leading anti-gay activists in the world, gets a boatload of taxpayer money. Thanks, Uncle Sam!

Confronted by The Florida Independent's Andy Kopsa about her quote in support of Ssempa, Mullarkey said that she knows Martin Ssempa's heart, and knows deep down that he's a good man.

"I know Martin well enough to know that because of his Christian faith he would never support the death penalty,” Mullarkey said, adding that Ssempa was a "change agent" who was committed to abstinence-only education.

Huh, interesting that Mullarkey says she knows Ssempa well enough to know that he would never support the death penalty. Because that's certainly not what Ssempa has said here, here, or here in advocating for Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which still includes a death penalty provision for homosexuality, in addition to life in prison for LGBT people. Ssempa also has a penchant for labeling all LGBT people pedophiles. Now does that sound like the type of charisma that Mullarkey should be praising?

The whole article over at The Florida Independent is well worth the read. In addition to getting a boatload of funding from the federal government, it turns out that the Professional Golf Association's (PGA) Player's Championship has given tens of thousands of dollars to support Project SOS. A spokesperson for the PGA told The Florida Independent that the PGA's support for Project SOS ended in 2010.

Let's send a message to the U.S. Health and Human Services Department that organizations with ties to pastors who want to lock gay people up for life or kill them don't deserve millions of dollars in grants from the federal government. It's bad enough that Project SOS's work has been cited by the American School Health Association as being "unacceptable" for students because of misinformation, but having ties to a pastor like Ssempa? That's unacceptable, and the U.S. government shouldn't be rewarding Project SOS with heaping piles of cash to operate.

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