This past weekend, 60 Minutes aired a story about the $15 billion anti-AIDS initiative known as PEPFAR, the US President’s Emergency Plan for Aids Relief, which was launched by President Bush in 2003. For the story, correspondent Bob Simon traveled to Uganda, a country that has lost more than a million lives to AIDS and has since benefited greatly from PEPFAR. But I noticed one glaring omission in the piece. When Simon interviewed Pastor Martin Ssempa, one of Uganda’s most well-known Christian ministers, he failed to mention Ssempa’s role in the country’s controversial anti-gay bill. It’s true that Ssempa has been one of Uganda’s leading HIV activists and that over the years his preaching of an abstinence-only approach has made him a darling of many US evangelicals. But more recently, Ssempa has become the Pied Piper of Uganda’s anti-gay campaign, leading rallies and protests to push the legislation through. We're in the process of editing the piece we shot on Uganda's anti-gay bill for the upcoming season of Vanguard. And where the two stories intersect is over the question of what effect anti-gay legislation might have on the fight against HIV/AIDS in Uganda. Many health care professionals we spoke to worry that the bill could have a very negative impact on whatever strides the country has made to combat HIV/AIDS. We’ll be exploring this question and more in the upcoming documentary. Follow the Vanguard team on Twitter. Also on the Vanguard blog: + Tutu: In Africa, Human Rights Moving “Backwards” + Ugandans Rally In Support Of Anti-Gay Legislation + Wrapping Up in Uganda + Uganda in Pictures added by: MarianaVanZeller
