Petition: Keep anti-gay Ugandan leader out of U.K.

Colin Stewart is a 45-year journalism veteran. He is the…

LGBTI rights activists are trying to block this month’s planned visit to the United Kingdom by Uganda’s anti-gay leader.

An online petition by LGBTI rights activist Godfrey Kawalya to the U.K.’s Home Secretary has been endorsed by more than 20,000 people. It states:

Stop anti-LGBTI President of Uganda (Yoweri Museveni) from coming to the UK in April 2018

This is an appeal to stop the homophobic President of Uganda Mr Yoweri Museveni from coming to the United Kingdom for the Commonwealth summit mid-April 2018.

I am Godfrey Kawalya, a Ugandan gay man and an LGBTI human rights activist, living in United Kingdom after fleeing Uganda due to the degrading and inhuman treatment I received under the leadership of Yoweri Museveni because of my sexuality.

I have post-traumatic depression, which is likely to be triggered by the presence of the main perpetrator of my worst experience as a gay man. I therefore appeal to you to sign this petition such that Mr Yoweri Museveni can be stopped from coming to United Kingdom.

He claims that homosexuality is a life choice and any demand for equality and justice for LGBTI people is just ‘social imperialism’. He has stated that it is a bad omen, sinful and unreligious for any person to receive aid from a person who advocates for LGBTI equality. This is a clear violation of the Commonwealth and British values, hence making him a threat to the British public.

The United Kingdom government prides itself as one of the best countries for LGBTI people, but I am very worried that this well-deserved record will be damaged by the official reception of the leader of one of the worst countries to be gay in the world.

Please sign now to demand the Commonwealth summit cancel Mr Museveni’s invitation to the UK and the Home Secretary to place him on the exclusion register, for the public good.

The Commonwealth 2018 theme is a Common future, however there is no common future without common equality.

The Commonwealth values of non-discrimination of LGBTI people are not respected by the above President, therefore he has nothing to offer apart from hatred towards LGBTI people in Uganda, Britain and the World. He is a threat to the British values and the people at large, thus his exclusion is lawful and justifiable.

On many occasions President Museveni has wrongly accused, rebuked and abused the west for homosexuality. This is wrong and amounts to misleading and inciting the Ugandan public against the LGBTI people. Our history is clear, the west brought homophobia which has been modernised by him as the President.

In 1999, he joined his anti-LGBTI friend Robert Mugabe by ordering the Uganda Police to hunt down all gays in Uganda. Consequently in 2011 David Kato was murdered, many others have been tortured including me.

In 2005 Mr Yoweri Museveni amended the Ugandan constitution to make same sex relationships illegal.

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In 2000 he felt that the colonial sodomy laws in the Uganda Penal code were not tough enough because they did not criminalise lesbians, therefore he amended the law to criminalise lesbians.

In 2014, he commissioned a report that twisted science to justify gay hate, hence signing the notorious anti-LGBTI law, which was later struck down by the courts, however he ordered his government to appeal the decision of the court. In the same year he made the infamous remarks that gay people are unnatural, gay sex gives people worms and gay people are disgusting. He wrongly accused the West of promoting homosexuality in Uganda at the same time allowing homophobic preachers to incite violence against gay Ugandans.

In 2016, police blocked Uganda’s fifth annual Pride Parade. (Photo courtesy of Facebook)

In 2012, he ordered his government to close 38 non-governmental organisations for allegedly promoting homosexuality.

Many gay people in Uganda have been denied access to HIV treatment under his regime, in 2014 Walter Reed project was raided under his command on false allegations of recruiting and promoting homosexuality.

President Yoweri Museveni has made it impossible for the Ugandan LGBTI community to celebrate Pride for many years.

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