Uganda’s new anti-gay law, which punishes “aggravated homosexuality” with life imprisonment has brought about mass criticism from around the world. However, no political leader has had a louder voice about the law than President Barack Obama, who recently asked Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni not to sign an anti-homosexuality law . He claimed that Uganda’s rising anti-gay climate would damage its relationship with the U.S. Now, Ugandan political figures are lashing back and speaking out against Obama.
According to Reuters, via the Huffington Post, our nation’s capital has been sending $400 million a year in aid to Uganda, but following the controversy over the new anti-gay law, a senior Obama administration official said that Washington would now review U.S. relations with Uganda.
Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo recently responded to the news about Uganda’s law regarding homosexuality.
“We don’t like to blackmail others. It’s very dishonest, very irresponsible and unfriendly of persons to attach behavior of another community to their sharing resources,” Lokodo told Reuters TV in Kampala.
Lokodo went on to cement his belief that homosexuality is wrong and claimed that he’d use Obama’s own marriage to First Lady Michelle Obama as proof that the only legitimate sexuality is heterosexuality.
“I would tell him point-blank that he chose the right direction and this direction was to marry Michelle,” he said.
“They have produced children, why does he encourage and promote others, men and women of same sex, to live together and have no offspring like him?” he added.
It is safe to say that international relations can be a complicated matter, but the matter of protecting human life, regardless of sexuality, is more than an international relations issue. It is a human (rights) issue. There’s nothing wrong with Obama or any other heterosexual person’s marriage or family, but it’s unfair, inhumane and just plain wrong to try to legally enforce the belief that that heterosexuality is the only way to be. Laws should be created to secure freedom to people to live, as they are, not how other people want them to be. Every minority group has seen how devastating the latter can be and it is safe to say that Obama is trying to push others to see that we can all live equally and freely, as great leader should. – nicholas robinson
