Petition to Disallow Entrance into the United States of David Bahati, MP (Uganda)

STATEMENT OF FACTS:

The Parliament of the Republic of Uganda, in East Africa, is presently considering legislation (the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2009) which, if enacted, would punish intimate contact between members of the same sex (homosexuality is already outlawed in that country) with life imprisonment, and in certain cases, death by hanging.

The bill, which has come to be known internationally as theKill the Gays act also provides sentences of imprisonment for persons who conceal knowledge of anothers homosexuality, who publicly discuss the subject of homosexuality, or who agitate or advocate for homosexual human or civil rights or for the decriminalization of homosexuality.

The bill was drafted by its sponsor, one David Bahati, M.P., a member of the governing party, and has met with widespread support among Ugandas populus

Mr. Bahati has recently announced that he will attend the National Prayer Breakfast to be held in Washington, DC on February 4, which President Obama is also expected to attend. The annual prayer breakfast is organized by The Fellowship Foundation (also known as The Family), a conservative Christian organization that numbers several high-ranking members of Congress among its members and whose teachings are said to have inspired Bahatis bill.

The proposed legislation has been noted by several news agencies to be heavily influenced by U.S.-based religious personages and organizations: indeed, a special parliamentary motion to introduce the legislation was passed one month after a two-day conference was held wherein three U.S.-based Christian organizations asserted the need for such legislation, as homosexuality was a direct threat to the cohesion of African families.

RELIEF SOUGHT:

INSOFAR as Section 212(a) of the Immigration and Nationality Act provides, inter alia, that Any alien who, while serving as a foreign government official, was responsible for or directly carried out, at any time during the preceding 24-month period, particularly severe violations of religious freedom, as defined in section 3 of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998, [is] inadmissible;

AND FURTHER, insofar as subsection E(ii) of the same section provides that : Any alien who has engaged in conduct that is defined as genocide for purposes of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide is inadmissible.

AND FURTHER, given that the subjects activities as a legislator in his own country are contrary to the principles of respect for and promotion of human and civil rights for all and are directly and intentionally injurious to those principles,

AND FURTHER, insofar as it is within the Secretary of States lawful discretion to deny entry to the United States to any person who represents a threat to internal security and orderly administration, it is our respectful request that Mr. Bahati be denied permission to enter the United States, and that a visa for that purpose, if already issued, be withdrawn.