Yoweri Museveni replies
POTUS, Barack Obama!
A few days ago, President Barack Obama condemned Uganda’s anti-gay law, says it is “a step backwards for all
Ugandans”.
Uganda President Yoweri Museveni released a
statement on Obama’s reaction and his hopes that the law won’t affect
relationship with both countries.
Read!
I have seen the statement H.E President Obama of the USA made in reaction to my statement that I was going to sign the anti-homosexual Bill, which I made at Kyankwanzi.
Before I react to H.E. Obama’s statement, let me,
again, put on record my views on the issue of homo-sexuals (ebitiingwa,
bisiyaga in some of our dialects).
Right from the beginning of this debate, my views
were as follows:
1. I agreed with the MPs and almost all Ugandans
that promotion of homosexuality in Uganda must be criminalized or rather should
continue to be criminalized because the British had already done that;
2. those who agreed to become homosexuals for
mercenary reasons (prostitutes) should be harshly punished as should those who
paid them to be homosexual prostitutes; and
3. exhibitionism of homosexual behavior must be
punished because, in this part of the World, it is forbidden to publicly
exhibit any sexual conduct (kissing, etc) even for heterosexuals; if I kissed
my wife of 41 years in public, I would lose elections in Uganda.
The only point I disagreed on with some of the
Members of Parliament (MPs) and other Ugandans was on the persons I thought
were born homosexual. According to the casual observations, there are rare
deviations in nature from the normal. You witness cases like albinos
(nyamagoye), barren women or men (enguumba), epa (breastless women) etc. I,
therefore, thought that similarly there were people that were born with the
disorientation of being attracted to the same sex. That is why I thought that
that it was wrong to punish somebody on account of being born abnormal. That is
why I refused to sign the Bill and, instead, referred it to our Party (the NRM)
to debate it again. In the meantime, I sought for scientific opinions on this
matter.
I am grateful to Ms. Kerry Kennedy of the USA who
sent me opinions by scientists from the USA saying that there could be some
indications that homosexuality could be congenital. In our conference, I put
these opinions to our scientists from the Department of Genetics, the School of
Medicine and the Ministry of Health. Their unanimous conclusion was that
homosexuality, contrary to my earlier thinking, was behavioural and not
genetic. It was learnt and could be unlearnt. I told them to put their
signatures to that conclusion which they did. That is why I declared my
intention to sign the Bill, which I will do. I have now received their signed
document, which says there is no single gene that has been traced to cause
homosexuality. What I want them to clarify is whether a combination of genes
can cause anybody to be homosexual. Then my task will be finished and I will
sign the Bill.
After my statement to that effect which was
quoted widely around the World, I got reactions from some friends from outside
Africa. Statements like: “it is a matter of choice” or “whom they love” which
President Obama repeated in his statement would be most furiously rejected by
almost the entirety of our people. It cannot be a matter of choice for a man to
behave like a woman or vice-versa. The argument I had pushed was that there
could be people who are born like that or “who they are”, according to
President Obama’s statement.
I, therefore, encourage the US government to help
us by working with our Scientists to study whether, indeed, there are people
who are born homosexual. When that is proved, we can review this legislation. I
would be among those who will spearhead that effort. That is why I had refused
to sign the Bill until my premise was knocked down by the position of our
Scientists.
I would like to discourage the USA government
from taking the line that passing this law will “complicate our valued
relationship” with the USA as President Obama said. Countries and Societies
should relate with each other on the basis of mutual respect and independence
in decision making.
“Valued relationship” cannot be sustainably
maintained by one Society being subservient to another society. There are a
myriad acts the societies in the West do that we frown on or even detest. We,
however, never comment on those acts or make them preconditions for working
with the West. Africans do not seek to impose their views on anybody. We do not
want anybody to impose their views on us. This very debate was provoked by
Western groups who come to our schools and try to recruit children into
homosexuality. It is better to limit the damage rather than exacerbate it.
I thank everybody.
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