Grassley asks State Department about Ugandan anti-gay legislation

After Iowans contacted Sen. Chuck Grassley about a Ugandan legislative proposal to criminalize homosexuality his office took those concerns to the U.S. State Department, which said there has been back channel communication with Ugandan officials about the issue.

However, Grassley said Wednesday he doesn't plan to speak out on the issue or appeal to Ugandan parliamentarians as an Iowa gay-rights group has demanded in a Web-based petition.

“I've got a fulltime job reading bills in Congress without reading the bills in another 190 countries,” Grassley said. “Surely nobody in Iowa expects me to keep up on issues that are in the parliaments of other countries. Besides I don't know anything about it.”

One Iowa, Iowa's largest gay-rights group, asked Grassley to speak out against the proposed Ugandan legislation that would criminalize homosexuality. It calls for life sentences for people convicted of sex with a same-gender partners and execution if convicted more than once. Also, Ugandans who test positive for HIV could be executed. Advocacy of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues in Uganda would be criminalized as well.

Justin Uebelhor, spokesman for One Iowa, the state's largest gay-rights group, says 700 Iowans contacted Grassley's office about the issue in the first 48 hours of the campaign, which, he said, is of “profound importance” to them.

“It's unfair for Sen. Grassley to ignore their calls,” he said, adding Iowans expect their elected officials to “speak out against human rights violations abroad.”

Grassley was called on specifically because One Iowa believes he has been involved in handling African affairs for a fundamentalist religious group in Washington known as The Family, which includes members of Congress.

“Grassley has not been in contact with The Family on this or other policy issues,” his spokeswoman Beth Pellett Levine said, adding that Grassley had received just five petition letters from Iowans generated from the One Iowa Web site.

As a result of inquiries, Grassley's office contacted the State Department to get more information about the situation in Uganda. It was told the Obama administration hasn't made an official statement, but an assistant secretary has privately relayed concerns to the Ugandan president.

Some gay-rights groups, although not One Iowa, have criticized the Obama administration for not speaking out forcefully enough against the Ugandan legislation.

Uebelhor did not say whether other members of the Iowa congressional delegation have been asked to speak to the Ugandans.