According to President Museveni, homosexuality will not be accepted in Uganda, and the West should cease attempting to impose its ideals on other nations by pressuring them to “normalize” what it terms “deviations.”
Mr. Museveni declared, “We are not going to follow people who are lost,” while officiating at the national festivities honoring Janani Luwum Day in Wii-Gweng village in Mucwini Sub-County, Kitgum District. “These Europeans are not normal, they don’t listen”.
“We have been telling them ‘please, this problem of homosexuality is not something that you should normalise and celebrate,” he said, adding, “They (Western countries) don’t listen, they don’t respect other people’s views and they want to turn the abnormal into normal and force it on others. We shall not agree.”
The President’s comments, which were met with cheers from the congregation, came in response to requests made by His Grace Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu, the Archbishop of the Church of Uganda, for the government to join the Church in denouncing homosexuality and passing legislation to do so.
“Now we request you to give attention to what you have already started because we have homosexuals and other vices attacking our nation. Like late (Archbishop) Luwum was bold, we want to call out government to be bold and come out to fight all these vices that will kill our nation,” said the prelate.
The United Nations lists 77 nations that have laws against homosexual and lesbian behavior, including Uganda.
Since Pope Francis and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby declared that laws criminalizing homosexuality were “sin… and an injustice” the topic of sexual orientation has become divisive among clergy and believers.
After voting on February 9 to allow priests to bless same-sex couples getting married in civil ceremonies, the Church of England, which other Anglican provinces are descended from, threw an explosive into the issue.
Archbishop Kaziimba of the Province of Church of Uganda, which in 2008 split from the Episcopal Church of America, as the Anglican Church there is called, over the consecration of a gay man as bishop, quickly responded, saying the Canterbury decision was in direct opposition to what the Bible and God’s will teach.
The Inter-Religious Council, Uganda’s top forum for religious leaders, issued a statement in response to the resistance, urging the government to pass legislation resembling the anti-homosexuality act that had been overturned.