S01.E09: Pepe Julian Onziema

[Athena]

This week's show includes an interview with Ugandan LGBTI activist Pepe Julian Onziema.

[trow125]

LWT's Twitter account sent out a notification that LWT will start at 11:15 PM on Sunday due to the premiere of "The Leftovers." I really wish the HBO Sunday programming didn't bump LWT to later time slots... I like to watch it when it airs, but I have to get up early on Mondays!

[possibilities]

I live in MA and am on all the marriage equality mailing lists, and I did not know that Scott Lively was the Scott Lively running for governor here. Great job, LWT! Much appreciated. "Avaaz" has been taking up for our rights and safety around the world, but the domestic movement for equality seems to not give a crap, and I'm glad that's being called out for the shameful racist scandal that it is.

 

The funniest thing I've seen about the Bite, and which so far I have not seen any comedians pick up on, is that people-- including the guy who got bitten-- are saying the punishment was too harsh: http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2014/06/27/326087483/suarez-ban-is-excessive-bite-victim-says

 

I love the bees and snakes.

[trow125]

The extended interview is up.

I think the thing I love best about LWT is that often, when I find out what the main topic is, I think, "Ugh, I really don't want to watch 15 minutes on a super depressing topic like Ugandan anti-gay laws," or the death penalty, or whatever, and yet I sit there completely riveted and am always surprised at how the 30 minutes fly by. Pepe Julian Onziema is a true hero. What a contrast to Scott Lively. I hope he gets .00001% of the vote in MA, but if he's busy there, at least that means he won't be in Uganda stirring up trouble.

[possibilities]

That's a really good point about how the show manages to find the good stuff happening, and to not only feature the horrors. It would be easy to stop with the despair-making crap, but showing that there are actually other forces at work, and that there are people working in positive ways, is really inspiring and helps me not want to just give up in a final burst of misanthropy. It also makes me ask: why is that person able to stay decent while so many of us are overwhelmed and ready to just give up?

 

Positivity without white wash is really precious and makes this show special.

[walnutqueen]

I watched an excellent PBS documentary on Independent Lens called "God Loves Uganda".  Much as it made my blood boil, I stuck with it simply because I couldn't believe anyone would take Scott Lively seriously. 

[possibilities]

Above I said "Avaaz" is taking up for international LGBT rights-- and they are. But the main organization dedicated to that and that alone is "All Out"-- my apologies for the mix up (though both are fabulous orgs).

[Athena]

The extended interview is quite good. I wish Pepe had been on the actual programme longer. He made a good point about moving beyond blame and building on a better future. Also, the guy is awesome for just being all "We don't do that," and just being so restrained during the vegetable and fruit fiasco.

 

Again, I love John's international focus. It was informative and apt for Pride week.

[possibilities]

Hobby Lobby won; apparently corporations do have religious freedoms that trump federal law and the rights of their employees. Where does it end?

[Fremde Frau]

This was a fantastic episode. The interview was beautifully done, and Onziema himself is such an inspiration.

 

I watched an excellent PBS documentary on Independent Lens called "God Loves Uganda".  Much as it made my blood boil, I stuck with it simply because I couldn't believe anyone would take Scott Lively seriously.

 

I saw that documentary, too, after Roger Ross Williams' interview on TDS. As a child of missionaries (to Hiroshima, Japan), certain aspects of it struck pretty close to home. As an adult now and as an anthropologist, part of me wants to return to educate missionaries on cultural violence, among other things, but the problem is that there is no interest in true exchange or in learning. When one believes one's religion has all of the answers, there's no incentive to respect other viewpoints, and even becoming educated on those viewpoints is akin to letting the devil in. Now with religion riding so high on politics here, I think we're headed towards the next Great Awakening. Let's just hope it doesn't go internationally viral.

 

Hobby Lobby won; apparently corporations do have religious freedoms that trump federal law and the rights of their employees. Where does it end?

 

What do we call it when a practicing plutocracy marries a theocracy-in-waiting?

[Catherinewriter]

Pepe Onziema is a class act. I loved that John was so delighted with him and supportive of him.

 

"Sorry doesn't cut it." Yeah!

 

Please keep him safe in Uganda, and all other LGBTI folks there and around the world.

[stillshimpy]

Pepe Julian Onziema is a true hero.

 

Seriously, he is a person of such courage and character that I can only aspire to be that brave and ultimately forgiving.  I doubt I'll make it in this lifetime, but what a shining example of decency and bravery.  From almost the moment he appeared I was honestly saying, "Oh thank goodness, please don't go back.  Please.  They're going to hurt you.  Please."  and the entire time, I really knew in my heart-of-hearts, he'll go back.  

 

Pepe Julian Onzeima and Malala Yousafzai are two of the most admirable and humbling people, because I consider myself outspoken and I'm not a coward, but again, I can only aspire to have the same kind of courage of conviction in the face of being denied basic human dignity and rights.  

 

It was a great show and I agree, once again, very weighty topics made humorous and engaging.  John Oliver is kicking ass.  I hope he's already renewed for another season. 

[Milburn Stone]

The manically high energy of this show is proving a little too much for me on a regular (even weekly) basis; I was enamored of it at first, and I still admire it, but it is growing one-note and thin. I still DVR it, but am finding that I come here first to find out which the really good parts are, and just watch those.

[ganesh]

While I was impressed with Pepe, that priest was wild. He's showing fetish porn in church and then brings vegetables to the interview. Protest a little too much, no?

[fastiller]

What do we call it when a practicing plutocracy marries a theocracy-in-waiting?

 

A caliphate?

 

Pepe Julian Onzeima and Malala Yousafzai are two of the most admirable and humbling people,

X1,000,000........

[iMonrey]

Because of the late hour this show airs on, I tend to record it and then watch it Monday night. How ironic to go into it knowing Hobby Lobby won their Supreme Court case against the ACA just to see John Oliver so perfectly, so simply, so succinctly explain why they should not have. I don't know who argued for the Obama administration at the Supreme Court, but I wish to hell it had been John Oliver. How do you argue with the points he made? How do you rule against such common sense? It's not even a "corporations are people" issue, it's the obvious fact that nobody gets to pick and choose what their tax dollars are spent on. We all have to pay for things we don't agree with, from wars to welfare. So when it benefits them, corporations are exempt from what regular people pay for, and when it benefits them, corporations are the same as people. I don't know how the conservative justices on the court look themselves in the mirror.

[trow125]

Oh my gosh you guys, Scott Lively has a big sad that John Oliver included clips of him in his segment about Uganda:

"I’m calling out John Oliver as a liar and a fraud who couldn’t go ten minutes with me in an unscripted, unedited debate. Without his teleprompter and his cheap-shot, out-of-context video clips he would be exposed as just another left-wing loony."

Heh... somehow I believe that John would positively crush Lively in an "unscripted, unedited debate," but I'm also sure that John wouldn't want to give him the publicity, especially considering Lively's aspirations to higher office.

[dusang]

It was strange for me to hear John's points on Hobby Lobby -- my Fb and Twitter feeds have been filled with articles about how this is depriving women of choice and the basic human right of reproductive freedom rather than the "corporations as people" arguments, so it was just a really strange repositioning of the issue for me.  And, in some ways, I was a little disappointed that John didn't address the other arguments.

[Fremde Frau]

That bit was more of a glancing blow to Hobby Lobby, I think, sort of like the Washington name change bit in an earlier episode. I think if the Hobby Lobby case had been the central story of the episode instead of Uganda, then he would have taken more time and dealt with more of the arguments, like the segments on FIFA and net neutrality. When he mentioned that they pay full time employees 90% above minimum wage and then said not to get on their high horse, I'd hoped he would bring up Hobby Lobby's disingenuous and belated sense of pro-life morality, given issues like their previous willing coverage of contraceptives before big bad Obamacare, their 401(k) retirement plans, and doing a great deal of business with pro-abortion, anti-human rights China. The punchline about what people can do with their craft supplies wasn't very sharp.

 

Anyway, there is so much to take Hobby Lobby down on, it's an embarrassment of comedy riches. Maybe he will touch on it again, as he revisited the dingo bit from the net neutrality piece.

[dusang]

That bit was more of a glancing blow to Hobby Lobby, I think, sort of like the Washington name change bit in an earlier episode. I think if the Hobby Lobby case had been the central story of the episode instead of Uganda, then he would have taken more time and dealt with more of the arguments

 

That's probably true.  Based on their script, I suspect the writers did not expect HL to win so there wasn't a need to commit 12 minutes to it.

 

Pepe Julian Onzeima and Malala Yousafzai are two of the most admirable and humbling people,

 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to mangle my message in some manner, so apologies if I confuse you.  But what I kept thinking about is that he's coming from a place with no role models, no positive support, no validation.  I spent some time in Kenya several years ago and it continually surprised me to realize how different the dialogue on so many social issues was compared to here (in Canada).  Basically, where I was coming from a place where same-sex marriage had been legalized for several years, they were coming from a place where no one had ever said being gay was okay, let alone the number of people who said it was evil.  There was really no common ground for me to discuss this issue with a Kenyan because, even if they didn't actively dislike or fear homosexuals, they just didn't acknowledge or support them and had never spoken with anyone who would.

 

So, to my mind, that's an atmosphere conducive to self-hate, fear, and remaining closeted your whole life.  Just acknowledging you're gay would be a huge leap of out of your normative socialization.  Then to be openly gay would be dangerous.  To be an internationally known transgender activist in that environment... that's almost beyond my comprehension.  To find the certainty, strength, and bravery in yourself... it's amazing.  You know what I mean?

Edited July 6, 2014 by maraleia
fixed transgender per standards

[Athena]

That's probably true.  Based on their script, I suspect the writers did not expect HL to win so there wasn't a need to commit 12 minutes to it.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I'm going to mangle my message in some manner, so apologies if I confuse you.  But what I kept thinking about is that he's coming from a place with no role models, no positive support, no validation.  I spent some time in Kenya several years ago and it continually surprised me to realize how different the dialogue on so many social issues was compared to here (in Canada).  Basically, where I was coming from a place where same-sex marriage had been legalized for several years, they were coming from a place where no one had ever said being gay was okay, let alone the number of people who said it was evil.  There was really no common ground for me to discuss this issue with a Kenyan because, even if they didn't actively dislike or fear homosexuals, they just didn't acknowledge or support them and had never spoken with anyone who would.

 

So, to my mind, that's an atmosphere conducive to self-hate, fear, and remaining closeted your whole life.  Just acknowledging you're gay would be a huge leap of out of your normative socialization.  Then to be openly gay would be dangerous.  To be an internationally known transgender activist in that environment... that's almost beyond my comprehension.  To find the certainty, strength, and bravery in yourself... it's amazing.  You know what I mean?

 

Indeed. It was fantastic to hear Pepe's say in the extended interview that his family was "great" which obviously means a lot to him. John was really pleased by it too. I think it says a lot about the support network Pepe has. Him and his family probably do not have it easy as a result, but he is not alone of course.

 

What I liked about the piece too was that it brought attention to homophobia as a big social issue in Africa. Russia has (rightfully) been in the mainstream media for its homophobic policies, but Uganda is just one of many others as well.

[OneWhoLurks]

Quote

 

Citizens of Uganda, being persecuted due to their oppressive anti-gay laws is a well-established truth after presenter John Oliver featured a viral video 'eat da poo poo' on his show Last Week along with an interview with LGBT advocate Pepe Julian Onziema. Oliver's show has so far clocked more than 5,538,131 views on Youtube.

It helped raise awareness and overturn a law in a constitutional court on a technicality in August 2014. Formerly known as the "Kill the Gays", it was called so because a first draft included death penalty for gay sex, but was later changed to a life sentence. Another law that punishes gay sex with long prison terms, that was passed more than two years ago, also invited international outrage and even led some donor-countries to withhold aid.

However, right activists, part of organizations such as Human rights watch are troubled with the police forcing anal examinations to "prove" homosexuality. This sort of assault, they say has been encouraged through the anti-gay policies of President Yoweri Museveni's government. Activists also add that, though proponents of the practice say the law is used to prevent transmission of HIV, it is infact used as a form of discrimination and abuse

 

Police torturing gay men with anal probes to prove homosexuality in Uganda: Report

[maraleia]

I never mentioned this before but I met Pepe and he is a wonderful guy and so very brave.