XPost: ba.politics, dc.media, soc.penpals   
   XPost: alt.burningman   
   From: dthomas@zazzle.com   
      
   (CNN) -- President Yoweri Museveni, who made anti-homosexuality   
   laws in Uganda much tougher Monday, told CNN in an exclusive   
   interview that sexual behavior is a matter of choice and gay   
   people are "disgusting."   
      
   After signing the bill that made some homosexual acts punishable   
   by life in prison, Museveni told CNN's Zain Verjee that, in his   
   view, being homosexual is "unnatural" and not a human right.   
      
   "They're disgusting. What sort of people are they?" he said. "I   
   never knew what they were doing. I've been told recently that   
   what they do is terrible. Disgusting. But I was ready to ignore   
   that if there was proof that that's how he is born, abnormal.   
   But now the proof is not there."   
      
   Museveni had commissioned a group of Ugandan government   
   scientists to study whether homosexuality is "learned,"   
   concluding that it is a matter of choice.   
      
   "I was regarding it as an inborn problem," he said. "Genetic   
   distortion -- that was my argument. But now our scientists have   
   knocked this one out."   
      
   Dean Hamer, scientist emeritus at the National Institutes of   
   Health, wrote an open letter to the Ugandan scientists in the   
   New York Times last week urging them to reconsider and revise   
   their report. Among his responses to their conclusions: "There   
   is no scientific evidence that homosexual orientation is a   
   learned behavior any more than is heterosexual orientation."   
      
   Museveni, whose public position on the measure changed several   
   times, signed the bill into law at a public event Monday. The   
   bill was introduced in 2009 and originally included a death   
   penalty clause for some homosexual acts.   
      
   The nation's Parliament passed the bill in December, replacing   
   the death penalty provision with a proposal of life in prison   
   for "aggravated homosexuality." This includes acts in which one   
   person is infected with HIV, "serial offenders" and sex with   
   minors, according to Amnesty International.   
      
   The new law also includes punishment -- up to seven years in   
   prison -- for people and institutions who perform same-sex   
   marriage ceremonies, language that was not in the 2009 version   
   of the bill.   
      
   Lawmakers in the conservative nation said the influence of   
   Western lifestyles risked destroying family units.   
      
   The bill also proposed prison terms for anyone who counsels or   
   reaches out to gays and lesbians, a provision that could ensnare   
   rights groups and others providing services to lesbian, gay,   
   bisexual and transgender people.   
      
   The White House issued a statement Monday: "Instead of standing   
   on the side of freedom, justice, and equal rights for its   
   people, today, regrettably, Ugandan President Museveni took   
   Uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation   
   criminalizing homosexuality."   
      
   The statement continued: "As President Obama has said, this law   
   is more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in   
   Uganda, it reflects poorly on the country's commitment to   
   protecting the human rights of its people and will undermine   
   public health, including efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. We will   
   continue to urge the Ugandan government to repeal this abhorrent   
   law and to advocate for the protection of the universal human   
   rights of LGBT persons in Uganda and around the world."   
      
   United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay   
   also denounced the law, saying it institutionalizes   
   discrimination and could promote harassment and violence against   
   lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.   
      
   "This law violates a host of fundamental human rights, including   
   the right to freedom from discrimination, to privacy, freedom of   
   association, peaceful assembly, opinion and expression and   
   equality before the law -- all of which are enshrined in   
   Uganda's own constitution and in the international treaties it   
   has ratified," Pillay said in a statement.   
      
   Museveni also told CNN that the West should not force its   
   beliefs onto Ugandans.   
      
   "Respect African societies and their values," he said. "If you   
   don't agree, just keep quiet. Let us manage our society, then we   
   will see. If we are wrong, we shall find out by ourselves, just   
   the way we don't interfere with yours."   
      
   He also said Westerners brought homosexuality to his country,   
   corrupting society by teaching Ugandans about homosexuality. The   
   West has also helped make children at schools homosexual by   
   funding groups that spread homosexuality, he said.   
      
   Attitudes against homosexuality are prevalent in Uganda. A 2013   
   report from Pew Research found that 96% of Ugandans believe   
   society should not accept homosexuality.   
      
   Thirty-eight African countries have made homosexuality illegal.   
   Most sodomy laws there were introduced during colonialism.   
   Even before Museveni signed the bill into law, homosexual acts   
   were punishable by 14 years to life in prison.   
      
   Ugandan gay rights activist Pepe Julian Onziema told CNN's   
   Christiane Amanpour that some gay people in Uganda would rather   
   kill themselves than live under the new law.   
      
   "Prior to the bill becoming law today, people attempted suicide   
   because they are like, 'I'm not going to live to see this   
   country kill me -- so I would rather take my life.' "   
      
   Many have already left the country in fear of violence, Onziema   
   said, and among those who stay, many are stopping their activism.   
      
   Onziema, however, says he is not afraid. He says he won't let   
   the law take away his voice.   
      
   http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/24/world/africa/uganda-homosexuality-   
   interview/   
      
       
      
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