Ugandan Politician Behind "Kill the Gays" Bill To Attend U.S. Conference?

UPDATE: According to Doug Hadden, the Vice President of Communications for the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management, "David Bahati will not be attending this conference." Bahati, for his part, is still telling folks,  that he is attending. But conference organizers have said they will not allow him to attend, and are hiring extra security to make sure that he cannot attend. An official statement from ICGFM says: "It is clear that his participation would be contradictory to our mission."

Amy Winehouse might have been denied a visa to enter the United States. But apparently the leading politician in Uganda working to pass a bill that would criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment is allowed to walk the streets of Washington, D.C., attending an international conference on financial management.

According to Warren Throckmorton, a Christian psychologist and blogger covering Uganda's efforts to criminalize homosexuality, Ugandan Member of Parliament David Bahati is set to attend a December 6-8 conference in D.C. held by the International Consortium on Government Financial Management. The conference is set to take place at the Enrique Iglesias Conference Center at the Inter-American Development Bank.

Throckmorton spoke to Bahati in mid-November. At the time, Bahati said that his Anti-Homosexuality Bill would not face a vote in parliament until after February 2011 elections. But Bahati is still very confident that the bill will pass.

"Bahati said that due to the upcoming elections no significant legislative work is anticipated. He continues to believe that the bill will be considered and debated in Parliament after the elections," Throckmorton reports. "Mr. Bahati said that the delay should not be taken as a sign of lack of support by the committee chair or his peers in the Ugandan Parliament."

So there you have it. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill -- which would criminalize homosexuality with the death penalty or life imprisonment, and even throw in jail straight people who work on behalf of LGBT rights, or straight people who do not disclose to the government people they know who are LGBT -- won't become law before February 2011. But it is still very much on the table, and something that Bahati continues to champion every chance he gets.

And the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management, as well as all their sponsors for the upcoming December 6-8 conference, are comfortable with someone like Bahati attending?

Indeed, the conference is sponsored by a cadre of corporate players. There's Grant Thornton, an international accounting and consulting firm; Casals & Associates, an international development company; FreeBalance, a global software solutions company; Mosley & Associates, a management consulting outfit; and Graduate School, a worldwide group running government-centered education programs. These corporate cats are all OK with having their name attached to a conference where a politician like Bahati, who wants to literally kill gay people and look straight allies in jail, will participate?

That's hard to believe. Send these companies a message that their name shouldn't be attached to anything that a politician like Bahati is participating in, and send a message to the organizers of the International Consortium on Governmental Financial Management that they should not welcome the participation of Bahati. This is a man who, if his legislation passes, would stand by and let a genocide against LGBT people take place in his country. He does not belong at the table of world political and business leaders.

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