Gay congressman demands Christian conservative organization reveal its role in Uganda’s anti-gay law

Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI) has written a letter to the Fellowship Foundation, an influential anti-LGBTQ+ Christian organization, requesting information about the group’s support for Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), a 2023 law which punishes homosexuality and its “promotion” with prison time and death.

Since the AHA’s passage, there have been at least 180 reported cases of anti-LGBTQ+ evictions, over 175 cases of “torture, abuse, and degrading treatment” against LGBTQ+ people, and over 155 reported cases of discrimination, abuse, and other violations of LGBTQ+ equality, Pocan wrote.

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“At Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast in 2023, which the Fellowship Foundation helped support — including by flying in Rep. Tim Walberg (R-IL) to speak — speakers called LGBTQI+ advocates a force from the bottom of Hell,’ said they would ‘destroy’ ‘the forces of LGBTQ,’ and spoke in support of the Anti-Homosexuality Act,” Pocan added.

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At the breakfast, Rep. Walberg told attendees to “stand firm” in response to international pressure against Uganda, though Walberg later said his statement was not in support of the law. However, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who attended the breakfast, later said there are Americans who “think like us,” showing his willingness to point to anti-LGBTQ+ politicians and their rhetoric to justify Ugandan support for the law, Pocan noted.

Pocan said that concerns about the foundation’s possible support of the law caused last year’s U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, which is organized by the foundation, to be split into two events.

Pocan has asked the foundation to state whether it supports or opposes the AHA. If it opposes the law, he asks whether the foundation will publicly oppose it and other laws that criminalize LGBTQ+ people. He has also asked the foundation to share information about the foundation’s communications with Ugandan government officials regarding the law and its financial support of other organizations, individuals, and “advocacy activities” in Uganda. He has also asked for additional information about the foundation’s ties to the National Prayer Breakfast, both in the U.S. and in other countries.

He told the foundation to respond to his questions by February 28, though his letter didn’t explain what actions would be taken if the foundation doesn’t respond.

After Uganda passed its law, President Joe Biden called for its immediate repeal and threatened to cut U.S. aid to Uganda in response. The State Department issued a travel advisory to U.S. citizens, urging them to reconsider travel to the country because of the legislation and other local crime and terrorist acts.

Uganda made its first major prosecution under the law in September, charging an “ex-gay” activist who promoted the law with engaging in consensual gay sex. If convicted, the activist may face life in prison.