Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in the Washington Post, writes forcefully: “Hate has no place in the house of God”. He takes politicians in Africa to task for fomenting hatred and fear of gay and lesbian people as a tool to gain more power for themselves.
“It is time to stand up against another wrong.
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people are part of so many families. They are part of the human family. They are part of God’s family. And of course they are part of the African family. But a wave of hate is spreading across my beloved continent. People are again being denied their fundamental rights and freedoms. Men have been falsely charged and imprisoned in Senegal, and health services for these men and their community have suffered. In Malawi, men have been jailed and humiliated for expressing their partnerships with other men. Just this month, mobs in Mtwapa Township, Kenya, attacked men they suspected of being gay. Kenyan religious leaders, I am ashamed to say, threatened an HIV clinic there for providing counseling services to all members of that community, because the clerics wanted gay men excluded.
Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi.
These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa.”
Read the full piece here.
If you’re looking for details and facts on the situation in Africa, or anywhere else in the world, you can find them at the State Department’s Human Rights report webpage.
(h/t to Boxturtle)