Becky Garrison: In early March when the KONY 2012 video became the most viral video in history, news stories began circulating that called some of the video’s claims about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army into question. While much of the criticism focused on the non-profit behind the video, Invisible Children (IC), and their coverage of this conflict, the media stayed silent when Alternet broke the story that Invisible Children received funding from the anti-gay Creationist Christian Right.
Furthermore, they failed to take note when on April 4, 2012 Truth Wins Out reported that IC also shares profound ties with The Family (aka The Fellowship), the secretive fundamentalist organization widely believed to be behind Uganda’s infamous ‘Kill the Gays’ bill and decades of domestic and international political events. Truth Wins Out sites an exhaustive report released by researcher Bruce Wilson that reveals alarming social and professional associations between the two groups. This includes a network of elite evangelical indoctrination centers in Uganda, which groom Christian youth for future leadership roles in the country. In addition, TWO released a statement on April 21, 2012 citing Wilson’s additional research that ties IC to funders behind the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) and Proposition 8.
In a statement on their website and a follow-up video released on April 5th, IC elaborates on the background behind the Kony story and encourages everyone to explore inhumane conditions throughout the world. To this end, they devised a worldwide day of action titled “Cover the Night (Make Kony Famous 2012).
But as they spread awareness for this noble cause, IC continues to make LGBT people living in Uganda invisible. Their inability to address their anti-gay funding streams or their Family connections raises once again the question posed earlier at The Revealer, “Can one advocate on behalf of child soldiers while also partnering with those who support legislation that would make ‘homosexuality’ a crime punishable by death?”