Should BBC executives face execution?

The Paul Richards column

Displaying all the preservation instincts of British Airways’ cabin crew, BBC executives have encouraged a lively ‘debate’ on the BBC ‘have your say’ website. The cheery Christmas-tide subject under discussion is “should homosexuals face execution“.

The peg is the ‘anti-homosexuality bil‘ which will be debated tomorrow in the Ugandan Parliament. The bill proposes the death sentence for gay men with HIV – or if their sexual partner is under 18 – and seven years in prison for ‘attempted homosexuality’. I’m not sure what the legal definition of ‘attempted homosexuality’ might be, but I am fairly sure the Ugandan supreme court won’t mean trying, and failing, to enjoy musicals.

There are two issues here. One is the repugnant attitudes on display by the Ugandan proposers of the bill, and in particular David Bahati, the 35-year old Member of Parliament who wants gays to be executed. He is part of an evangelical Christian movement across Africa seeking to bring in vicious anti-gay laws. According the Observer, Bahati met with prominent anti-gay campaigners from the USA in March in Entebbe. They included American Christian evangelicals who believe gays can be ‘cured’ and that homosexuality can be eradicated like polio. But even most right-wing US bible-bashers baulk at the death penalty for gays.

There is no room for manoeuvre here. There is no space for liberal cultural relativism or neo-colonial allowance-making. Anti-gay bigotry is wrong, whether practiced in Uganda, Iran, Russia or Luton. So is female circumcision, child abuse and murder to banish demons, and other repulsive practices sanctioned by religion and culture. When Muslim clerics come to UK and preach messages of hate against gays, Jews and women they should be shunned, exposed and opposed with all of our might (Ken Livingstone take note). The same goes for Christian preachers from the US Bible Belt, or neo-conservative politicians from the EU, or anyone else. If Uganda’s parliamentarians vote for hatred and bigotry on Friday, the UK government should condemn them in unequivocal terms. Progressive groups should continue to protest outside the Ugandan embassy in Trafalgar Square. The Archbishop of Canterbury needs to break his silence and condemn those members of the Anglican communion who support this most un-Christian of laws. The Labour Party should unite with lesbians and gays in Uganda to oppose these laws and fight for basic human rights.

And what of the BBC? They have behaved like a silly student union, trying to be controversial to attract attention. So many of the comments have been deleted on the website, you have to wonder at the deluge of homophobia the site has attracted. Many of the comments that got past the moderator are pretty horrible.

But it is the decision by BBC executives to frame the question as a ‘debate’, which usually suggests there are different, equally-valid points of view, that deserves the most opprobrium. Asking the question ‘has Uganda gone too far?’ in relation to executing gays on a publicly-funded website might be blamed on a daft intern. But someone somewhere within the BBC must have had editorial control over whether the site went live, and pressed the button. They need to be dragged from their desk and made to apologise.

Next year OutRage! will be 20 years old. In those twenty years, we’ve gone from Section 28 to civil partnerships. Changing social attitudes have driven the moves towards equality for lesbians and gay men, helped along by a progressive Labour Government.

But OutRage! deserves plaudits for its imaginative, relentless campaigning, its stunts, and its bravery. It was a terrible shame that Peter Tatchell announced that he is unable to continue as the Green Party’s parliamentary candidate in Oxford East. The reason was ill-health caused by brain injuries suffered at the hands of Mugabe’s goons and neo-nazis in Moscow when protesting for human rights. I want Labour to win in Oxford East, of course, but that Tatchell has had to withdraw from the race because of the personal price he has paid for his convictions is somewhat humbling. It is a reminder that social progress rarely comes without a struggle, whether here or in Uganda.

Next time you get an invitation to civil partnership ceremony at your local town hall, remember the men and women facing prison or firing squad in Uganda because of their genetic make-up.