Church rails against anti-gay proposal

DOWNTOWN — A proposed law in Uganda that would outlaw people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender may seem like a world away, but for the people who gathered Thursday at Glendale City Seventh-Day Adventist Church, prayer brought the implications home.

The group, which represented various religious denominations, gathered on the annual National Prayer Day inside the church on East California Street to take a stand against the proposed Ugandan law that would criminalize people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender.

“When we hear of the hatred for brothers and sisters in Uganda, we also feel hatred; we become hateful ourselves . . . We know that we have become a culture of ‘us versus them,’ spending our hours and energies naming and blaming,” said the Rev. Keith Banwart Jr. of St. Matthew’s Lutheran Church in Glendale.

In opposition to the bill, Glendale City Seventh-Day Adventist Church was one of 17 churches across the country to commemorate the day of prayer to the LGBT Ugandan community, said Dave Ferguson, church relations director of Seventh-day Adventist Kinship.

The church is one of a few Seventh-Day churches that openly accepts lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as members, he said.

“Anyone can come and feel accepted,” Ferguson said.

When he heard about the proposed Ugandan law, Ferguson urged church officials to speak out against it, hold a prayer service and invite all religious groups and people to join them in their prayer for Uganda’s LGBT community.

“We come as a community of faith to build our individual communities through acceptance rather than tearing down people who are different from us in belief, in ethnic origin, in race or in orientation,” Ferguson told congregants. “We come to share our humanity and to build our world of peace. We gather to seek justice for all, especially those who have been marginalized by society.”

The highly controversial and criticized bill would sentence LGBT people in Uganda to life in prison for engaging in homosexual acts, which are already illegal.

The proposed bill would also sentence LGBT people to death for “aggravated homosexuality,” defined in the country as when a person rapes a minor of the same sex or contracts HIV/AIDS.

Penalties would also be imposed against companies that promote gay rights.