A major U.S. anti-gay organization known as the Family Research Council has been caught lobbying Congress in an attempt to stop a resolution that condemned the execution of gays and lesbians, according to Joe My God.

(Wow, let that sink in for a moment.  FRC did not want Congress to condemn the murder of gays and lesbians.)

Congress was considering a resolution calling on Uganda to reject pending anti-gay legislation that included a death penalty for homosexuals in certain cases.  Publicly available lobbying reports showed FRC spent $25,000 on lobbyists to oppose the resolution, which passed anyway in the Senate and is still pending in the House.

The Uganda bill in question has drawn international condemnation, including a strong rebuke from the White House and State Department.

Democratic and Republican members of the House and Senate have teamed to introduce resolutions condemning Uganda’s so-called “Kill the Gays” bill now pending in that country’s legislature, according to a report in the Advocate:

Democratic senators Russ Feingold of Wisconsin and Ben Cardin of Maryland, with Republican senators Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and Susan Collins of Maine, issued the resolution. California Democrat Howard Berman introduced the House version to the Foreign Affairs Committee, and it has been signed by more than three dozen other members, including Wisconsin’s Tammy Baldwin, committee ranking Republican Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida, and Congressional Black Caucus chair Barbara Lee of California. 

Both documents ask the Ugandan parliament to reject the bill.

The resolution says the United States cannot support Uganda’s efforts to make homosexuality punishable by death because of the “core American principles of equality and ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’” It also says that such laws undermine the United States’s efforts to fight HIV and AIDS in the region by stigmatizing and criminalizing vulnerable people. 

It also calls on other nations to reject laws that criminalize homosexuality.

“The proposed Ugandan bill not only threatens human rights, it also reverses so many of the gains that Uganda has made in the fight against HIV/AIDS,” (Rep. Tammy) Baldwin said in a statement on Thursday. “This issue has united leaders of different political and religious views in Uganda and worldwide in one common belief in the rights of all human beings regardless of sexual orientation.”

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, in a keynote speech this morning at the National Prayer Breakfast, said the Obama administration is “standing up for gays and lesbians who deserve to be treated as full human beings,” adding, “these are priorities of the United States.”

She told attendees she had called the president of Uganda to express “our strongest concerns about a law being considered in the parliament of Uganda,” referring to what has come to be called the “Kill the Gays” bill because it would implement a death sentence for certain crimes involving homosexual activity.

The prayer breakfast, an annual tradition that brings together world leaders in Washington, is sponsored by The Fellowship Foundation, which some accuse of having ties to anti-gay leaders in Uganda who have proposed the legislation Clinton condemned.

U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, the only openly lesbian Member of Congress, will chair the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission next week when it hears testimony about pending legislation in Uganda that imposes the death penalty on homosexuals, according to DC Agenda:

Homosexual acts are already illegal in Uganda, but the pending legislation would, among other things, institute the death penalty for repeat offenders of the homosexual acts ban and those who have homosexual sex while HIV positive.

The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission is charged with promoting public awareness and developing strategies for Congress on human rights issues.

One Iowa, Iowa’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, has asked Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) to officially condemn the proposed bill in Uganda that would make homosexuality punishable by life in prison or even execution.  The demand comes primarily in response to the actions of a group known as The Family, of which Grassley is a member, which has close ties to Ugandan officials advocating for the law.

The Iowa Independent covers the story:

Des Moines-based One Iowa is conducting a petition drive demanding Grassley denounce the bill and use his influence to stop it. The reason they believe Grassley could have an impact is his association with a group known as “The Family.”

“The Family, a fundamentalist group of powerful politicians in America and abroad has ties to Uganda legislators pushing this horrific affront to human rights,” the group said in a press release. “Our very own Sen. Grassley is a member of this so-called ‘family.’”

Grassley’s office has not yet commented on the matter.

Out Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) has already spearheaded an effort within the Congress to oppose the bill by issuing a letter, signed by three other representatives, to the State department asking it use its full authority to stymie the bill.