Museveni again rubbishes the notion that gays are a Western import

"Homosexuals have always been there in our society" Museveni

Uganda’s president must be wondering what he can do to make the subject of homosexuality in Uganda go away. Here he is again, on the BBC, forced to slap the wrists of those in Uganda calling for the annihilation of homosexuals on the grounds that homosexuality is a western import:

“Homosexuals have existed in our part of Africa, they were never persecuted, they were never discriminated … they were also never promoted. So the problem is on the promotion of homosexuality. … In our traditional society, the homosexuals would be known, it would not be approved but would be ignored” Musseveni

But David Bahati and the mob of parliamentarians and religious leaders egging him on have made exactly the contrary argument.

Museveni doesn’t want or support the Bahati Nazi anti-gay bill but it is clear from this BBC interview that he doesn’t really know what to do about it either. So, he chooses to obfuscate by focusing on ‘promotion of homosexuality’ and ‘recruiting children’ when he must know that no one is advocating for that.

Museveni is effectively saying that the problem is that, unlike in the past, homosexuality is being discussed and that is what he finds problematic. By extension, he also seems to be saying that if discussion of the subject was somehow quashed then there would be no problem. But the bill supporters are not saying that at all. In fact they are the ones ratcheting up the public discussion of homosexuality up to and including showing x-rated videos in public in order to further their agendas.

So the battle lines are drawn. The detractors’ position is that homosexuality is a foreign, immoral, import. Never mind that this is patently absurd; that is their position and they are willing to pass legislation to underpin it. Museveni’s position is that this entire discussion should go away, no legislation is needed because homosexuality is NOT a foreign import. But he is also tacitly admitting that he doesn’t know what he will do about it if the anti-gay bill is passed by Parliament.

It should be interesting times ahead.

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