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Sexual minorities in Africa have become collateral damage to our domestic conflicts and culture wars as U.S. conservative evangelicals and those opposing gay pastors and bishops within mainline Protestant denominations woo Africans in their American fight, a groundbreaking investigation by Political Research Associates (PRA) discovered.

Political Research Associates is calling on Pastor Rick Warren to oppose an antigay bill promoted by his allies that is currently being debated in the Ugandan legislature. In March 2008, Warren told Ugandans that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. Now the country is debating a bill that would lead to life imprisonment for gay sex, and death for those having same sex relations if they are HIV positive or having sex with someone under 18, plus criminalize any human rights organizing for LGBT rights.

In March 2008, U.S. evangelical leader Rick Warren told Ugandans that homosexuality is not a natural way of life and thus not a human right. One year later, U.S. conservative evangelical and Holocaust revisionist Scott Lively (a resident of Massachusetts) addressed the Family Life Network and Ugandan members of Parliament in March 2009, saying legalizing homosexuality is akin to legalizing “the molestation of children or having sex with animals.”

The Applied Research Center recently released an 86-page edited volume on race and the 2008 election: Changing the Race: Racial Politics and the Election of Barack Obama. The book features 20 prominent thinkers and activists, including PRA senior analyst Chip Berlet, who will be awarded the Drylongso Award from Community Change on November 10, 2009 to honor his work for racial justice.

Efforts to mobilize Ugandans to hunt down and imprison Ugandan gays and lesbians received worldwide attention during a three-day Family Life Network conference held March 3-5 in Kampala. But the media haven’t caught up with the rest of the story: challenges against this “hate campaign” by the local group Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).

For the latest news and insightful analysis about civil liberties, Political Research Associates and Public Eye invite you to visit our new blog, Liberty Beat.

The moment Barack Obama took the oath of office as President, many progressives breathed a sigh of relief—however tentative—that the Bush years were finally over. But it was clear within days that the conservatives have not abandoned Washington and won’t give up their strongholds without a fight. Keeping tabs on how the Right plans to thwart President Obama’s agenda—or push him well past the center line—is a critical part of PRA’s mission as America enters a new era of great promise…and deep uncertainty.

Political Research Associates, a nonprofit think tank known for its investigations of the U.S. Right and political repression, has received a $500,000 grant to conduct a multi-city investigation of…

Romance and marriage proposals are in the air on Valentine’s Day. Unfortunately, cupid isn’t the only matchmaker hard at work this season. An increasing number of low-income women find themselves pushed to the altar – not by their relations or suitors, but by the federal government.

BOSTON – This Valentine’s Day, an increasing number of low-income women find themselves pushed to the altar – not by their relations or suitors, but by the federal government. A new report by the think tank Political Research Associates and the Women of Color Resource Center documents how the Bush Administration bypassed proven poverty relief programs to promote marriage and the controversial idea that father-led families are the answer to poverty.