Staring next week, the new president of the U.N. General Assembly will be Sam Kutesa, the foreign minister of Uganda. Kutesa has a 20-year record of corruption, and a VERY visceral dislike of gays. He is the also right-hand man of Uganda’s military ruler, General Yoweri Museveni. Corruption, scandal, resignation, and reinstatement have been his revolving doors over the last serval years. He was implicated in a scandal in 2007 over $150 million in missing public money. (The case was dismissed on a technicality. Ah-hem.) Then there is Kutesa’s view on homosexuality. He’s been a big supporter of Uganda’s new anti-homosexuality law—which has led to a tenfold increase in anti-LGBT violence and he has defended it many times in the Western press. The U.S. Senator from New York, Kirsten Gillibrand has said;
“It would be disturbing to see the foreign minister of a country that passed an unjust, harsh and discriminatory law based on sexual orientation preside over the U.N. General Assembly.”
Secretary of State John Kerry has already gone on record as opposing Uganda’s anti-homosexuality bill, saying that it violates the very humanitarian values the U.N. is supposed to uphold. A change.org petition now has over 5,000 signatures. Activists in Europe have also begun to take notice and demand Kutesa’s withdrawal. These actions could do more to further endanger LGBT people in Africa and add fuel to the fire of anti-homosexuality campaigns elsewhere. This kinda seems like a no-win situation. Either a known homophobe presides over the U.N. General Assembly, or the homophobe is proven right, that LGBT equality is all just “a Western plot”.
Sam Kutesa, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Uganda
(via Daily Beast)
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