<p>When I say this I don't mean the Holocaust from WWII, but a similar one. At the time of the Holocaust, people thought it was only a rumor that the German government was killing Jews as part of the "final solution". Now, in multiple countries within Africa the government has set a death penalty for homosexuality, which essentially means they're sentencing all gays to death. What I don't understand is why no one is doing anything about this, and how this is just happening without any objections. What are your thoughts?</p>
<p>Firstly, it’s only a few countries in Africa and a few more in the middle east, and they are only given the death sentence if they partake in homosexual acts (not that that’s right, but people can avoid the punishment)
But as for your question, nobody is doing anything about it because it isn’t their business and to do anything they would probably have to launch a full scale war (and that’s turned out so well in the past)
There’s a lot more awful things going on in the world (including the death penalty in the US) that nobody’s doing anything about, why are kids still dying of starvation? for example. It doesn’t effect the people who can help, and it would be very difficult to help if they wanted to.</p>
<p>They have those laws on the book, but they aren’t sending homosexuals to death in droves, in some countries it almost never happens, although there are some cases is Uganda. Yes, it’s terrible, but there’s very little that can be done except perhaps a UN resolution (because those are so effective), in my opinion the UDHR should be amended to include sexual orientation. Or we could just let time bring about social change as it tends to do. And it’s funny that you mention Africa because Saudi Arabia is the one that’s really awful in this regard. </p>
<p>If you want to talk about a modern genocide - [War</a> in Darfur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_in_Darfur]War”>War in Darfur - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>“its only a few countries” NBD
“people can avoid the punishment” </p>
<p>disgusting</p>
<p>As someone who supports LGBT rights, I take offense at your reaction. Listen, I’m not saying this is okay, I’m saying that there is nothing practical to do at this time. If we INVADED every country that does injustice to its people we’d be pretty screwed. And there are PLENTY of other injustices to worry about. In most countries, these laws are loosely enforced, while in places like Darfur and now Syria people are simply killed outright in the streets, women are raped and towns destroyed. Is it horrible that homosexuality is a capital offense in some countries? YES, but a LOT of horrible things happen around the world, and we can’t just fly in and fix all of them. </p>
<p>So what we CAN do is go through international channels like the UN, but its na</p>
<p>The word you’re looking for is Genocide. It goes all the way back beyond Hiter. American settlers try to kill off Native American. It even goes closer to the present. Dictators try to kill off people that are a threat to their powers.</p>
<p>UKGirl, how is the death penalty in the US “more awful” than the death penalty for gays?</p>
<p>People are sentenced to death here for killing other people.</p>
<p>People are sentenced to death there for the kind of people they’re attracted to. </p>
<p>It’s not even comparable.</p>
<p>^^^True that. I honestly don’t think he death penalty is such a bad thing. I wouldn’t be doing the killing and its not my place to judge, but certain acts deserve death.</p>
<p>LOL, our death penalty and a death penalty for gays are incredibly different. I actually support the death penalty, in very rare circumstances, but sentencing people to death because they like people of the same gender is ludicrously absurd. UKgirl, perhaps you have some unjustified anti-American sentiments that you would like to share with us?</p>
<p>I didn’t really mean that the death penalty in the US is worse, I was just trying to point out that there are a lot of other awful things going on and that, in my opinion, is one of them. Not comparable, but a lot easier to do something about than invade another country.</p>
<p>and HellUVAchance you don’t have to agree with what I’m saying, but why the hate? I said I think it’s wrong that people are killed for being homosexual (of course) but I was just saying this to say why I don’t really think it can be classed as a Holocaust/genocide.
I said it was only a few countries, not because I think that means it doesn’t matter, but just to correct what runallday4 said.</p>
<p>Agree with Descuff, Holocaust means burnt offering, and is specifically used to talk about the genocide commited by the Nazis. But I wouldn’t really say a dictator trying to kill off threats is genocide.</p>
<p>And no, I definetly have no anti-American sentiments, I’m actually about to apply for citizenship and have wanted to live there for most of my life, it’s only the death penalty (and maybe a few other small things) that I don’t like about the US</p>
<p>UKgirl23 is right when she said it really can’t be classified as a genocide (not a “Holocaust”, mind you, it annoys me how the Holocaust seems to be the only event associated with genocide, but the Euro-centricity of American history classes is a totally different subject) due to the sheer volume. I’m not sure exactly how many people each year are killed due to gay persecution, but I’d bet it’s no more than 2 or 3 digits. A genocide is usually defined as a persecution damaging enough to eliminate a significant percent of a group’s population, but the current homophobic laws in African/Middle-Eastern countries kill an extremely small percentage compared to the entire global LGBT community.</p>
<p>Not that these laws aren’t horrifying, of course! It’s truly depressing that LGBT discrimination still goes on today, but it really takes a lot more than the magical snap of a finger from the UN to end these. Countries have made attempts (I remember an article stating that the UK was to cut relief to an African country until it got rid of its homophobic laws … good for them!), but the situations in many African countries are much more complicated than people realize. Some countries - yes, they technically have governments, but in reality, they have very little power.</p>
<p>Doesn’t affect us very much, doesn’t matter. We shouldn’t be getting in the affairs of other countries unless there are benefits involved.
The U.S. didn’t really do anything in WWII until Pearl Harbor.</p>
<p>death penalty. Is stupid. Any Christians that read the bible should understand. “Love thy enemies.” Love those that hurt you, hate you. We kinda forgotten that value. Also something those suffering death penalty were mentally ill.</p>
<p>Wait so if something doesn’t directly affect us then it by default doesn’t matter? </p>
<p>You understand you just dismissed the entire concept of philanthropy right there, right?</p>
<p>Yes, If it affect us not, why should it matter? A guy crushed a butterfly, the little boy cries because he was playing with it. An old man care not and thus just walk away.</p>
<p>^oh my god… What are you?</p>
<p>
</p>
<p>Yea, we should build butterfly gardens to protect them.</p>
<p>Okay, maybe that’s a little harsh. Someone swats a fly in their house, it affected them because they got rid of it (they can relax now), but the person who just let that fly buzz all other the room care not. And thus the person that did nothing remains unaffected.</p>
<p>
Did you know that during the Holocaust most people didn’t even believe that the Nazis were killing Jews? What would you have done then? Said it doesn’t matter and let them keep on killing?</p>
<p>Is invading another country really our only option. I think it’s bad that we Americans have a mind set that we must fix everything through military force. Like Rob1995 said, we could do an economic boycott. Another option is diplomatic negotiations. This was attempted at the UN, but the measure got stuck, as many countries apposed created a UN mandate stating that they couldn’t kill someone for sexual orientation.
A third option would be the US could begin accepting refugees from these countries so that they aren’t killed. This has already begun in Canada, and I don’t understand why the US hasn’t done the same.</p>