Ugandan President: Church must help in fight against gays

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has called on church leaders to support the government in its fight against homosexuality.

In a speech at the weekend read for him by the Minister of Security, Muruli Mukasa, President Museveni said that any clergy who presides over a wedding of a gay couple should be blacklisted and isolated from the Church of Uganda.

Mr Museveni said that homosexuality had become a ‘danger’ to the young generation.

The Ugandan Monitor newspaper reports he also claimed homosexuality was to blame for increasing HIV infections among the country’s youth.

In response, Edwin Sesange, from the UK based African LGBTI Out & Proud Diamond Group told PinkNews.co.uk: “The President should stop scapegoating gay people for all the wrong things in Uganda that are happening under his leadership. He should start addressing things like corruption, poor education facilities, unemployment and poor health care among others.”

Last week, an unnamed government minister confirmed that Uganda plans to introduce a new anti-gay law that will withstand any legal challenge.

Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the Anti-Homosexuality Act in August, ruling that the law had been passed without the necessary quorum of MPs.

Human rights campaigners welcomed the move, but also feared it would only represent a brief respite before new anti-gay legislation is introduced.

Signed by Mr Museveni in February, the act called for ‘repeat offenders’ of homosexuality to be sentenced to 14 years in prison and made it a criminal offence not to report someone for being gay.

Same-sex sexual activity is already illegal in Uganda.

• Nov 29 2023

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