Anti-gay Group in Uganda Hits Back at Rights Activists

By Alfred Wasike (Source: New Vision - Kampala)

August 31, 2007: A coalition of religious groups has lashed at the Human Rights Watch (HRW), accusing it of promoting homosexuality. The anti-gay group said the letter the HRW's director of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights programme, Scott Long, wrote to President Museveni was based on a false assumption that homosexuals were 'born that way'.

In the August 23 letter, Long called for the reform of existing laws against homosexuality and an end to what was described as 'a long record of harassing' lesbians, gays, bisexual and trans-gender people.

However, the Interfaith Rainbow Coalition against Homosexuality in Uganda (TIRCHU) insisted that homosexuality is illegal and against Ugandan family values. The spokesperson, Pastor Martin Sempa of the Makerere University Community Church, said HRW's letter was based on a false assumption that homosexuality is innate and immutable.

"Your letter asserts that homosexuals are entitled to certain 'rights' and that these 'rights' are being violated by the enforcement of our laws but we reject this assertion," he said in a letter addressed to Long.

Sempa said the law against homosexuality protects innocent people, especially the youth who might engage in risky sexual behaviour.

The group cited the case of Benjamin Buloba who was sodomised and bled to death on October 15, 2004.

TIRCHU said homosexuality was neither innate nor immutable, adding several people had reoriented from homosexuality to heterosexuality (sexual relationship between people of a different sex). The group advised the HRW to visit the website of the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (www.narth.org) for proof.

The Medical and Social Science association confirmed that homosexuality was not only unhealthy for individuals, but also for society, the group added.

According to a recent research by the Steadman Associates, 95% of Ugandans find homosexuality "repugnant and absolutely unacceptable to our culture."

TIRCHU comprises the Church of Uganda, the Catholic Church, Muslims, the Seventh Day Adventists, the Orthodox Church, the National Fellowship of Born-Again churches, the Baptist Union and the Evangelical Fellowship of Uganda.

Story sourced from the Allafrica.com website.

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HRW Letter to Ugandan President Regarding Homophobia and HIV
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