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Gilbert Lubega sat in a white plastic chair at his home in Wakiso, a suburb of Uganda’s capital, Kampala.
He was contemplating two photos of a young gay female couple kissing and another one of a male gay couple kissing at their wedding ceremony.
“These images make me think the world is coming to an end,” he said. “They are things you can’t imagine happening, and people blindly support them.”
The 55-year-old father of six, who owns a food kiosk in Wakiso, blamed the West for invading his culture and destroying its values.
He believes foreign governments are sponsoring LGBTQ people and their activities in the country.
“The people who call themselves LGBTQ activists are now recruiting many people, including our children,” Lubega said.
“They don’t know what they are doing, but they are destroying people’s lives by engaging them in unethical activities.
“The West want to make our country Sodom and Gomorrah, and we won’t accept it.”
Illegal and immoral activity
Last year in May, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law a measure calling for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of same-sex activity.
The law also calls for the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” which involves cases of same-sex relations involving people who are HIV positive, children and other vulnerable people.
Lubega, who wants the government to ban LGBTQ rights groups, is a staunch Catholic, and like many of his co-religionists, opposes Pope Francis’s recent move to allow priests to administer blessings to same-sex couples.
The organisation of Catholic bishops in Africa and Madagascar stated earlier this month that they will refuse to follow Francis’ declaration.
The bishop of Lira Diocese, the Rt. Rev. Sanctus Lino Wanok (pictured), has launched a campaign against all forms of LGBTQ identity or activism in northern Uganda.
He is calling on LGBTQ advocates to repent and seek God’s blessings.
“It’s shameful to see some people promoting sin and luring people to join in committing sin,” Wanok told RNS.
“People must not accept homosexuality because it’s a mockery of God, our creator.”
Wanok, Lubega and others are among the religious leaders, government officials and some rights group activists who have blamed the West for promoting LGBTQ acceptance in the country.
They say the activities have recently increased with pro-gay activists targeting school-going children.
Praise for Pope
A Catholic LGBTQ activist who asked for anonymity for his safety praised Francis’s declaration permitting priests to offer blessings to same-sex couples.
However, he said the Pope’s approval has only prompted the Government and citizens to increase attacks on their members.
He said families have disowned LGBTQ members, churches have given strict instructions not to allow them in the church’s compounds, landlords have evicted them and some have lost jobs.
“We live in fear because we cannot identify as gay, lesbian or transgender,” said the activist.
“Pope Francis should give clear instructions to bishops and priests to allow LGBTQ members to worship God and nourish their spirits.”
Cultural divisions
The Western world has for years called on African governments to give LGBTQ people equal rights by decriminalising same-sex sexual acts and protecting their rights.
In June last year, the United States imposed visa restrictions on dozens of Uganda officials in response to the country’s anti-gay laws.
“As Africans, we should be very careful and not accept everything white people tell us,” warned catechist Charles Kiwuwa from the Archdiocese of Tororo in the eastern region of Uganda, in an interview with RNS.
“They have told us that polygamy is a sin because they know most Africans embrace it and that homosexuality is righteousness because we disagree.”
The Catholic leaders have begun a countrywide campaign to fight “agents of homosexuality” in the country who they believe are being supported by foreign governments to spread LGBTQ activism in schools and other institutions.
The church leaders have expressed concern over increasing cases of same-sex attraction among the youth and school-going children.
They are accusing these agents of luring school children with money and other luxurious gifts to recruit them.
“As a church, we have decided to fight homosexuality to save our children and the country from collapsing because the Bible teaches us that homosexuality is evil, as read in Genesis Chapters 18 and 19,” the Rev. Richard Nyombi told RNS.
Nyombi, the parish priest of Mapeera Nabulagala in Kampala, said religious leaders had fought same-sex attraction from time immemorial, both in the Bible and today.
They are unwilling to allow foreign culture to influence the country.
“We are preaching against homosexuality during Mass and other gatherings to help our brothers and sisters not fall prey to the vice and for those who have already been lured into the practice to repent and follow God’s way,” he said.
Church leaders have been meeting with youth, parents, children, elders and government officers in an effort to curb the spread of “immoral” behavior among people, especially children.
The leaders have also been advising parents during Masses and other gatherings to warn their children against same-sex attraction and to urge them to be content with what their parents have given them, so they are not tempted by money.
“We have started to sensitise children in schools and homes against the vice of homosexuality,” said the Rev. Fr. Francis Xavier Kikomeko, the parish priest of Kisubi in Kampala. They also offer weekly workshops, he said.
“We want to make children and parents aware that homosexuality is a sin, and pro-gay activists should never influence them to join LGTBQ groups because it’s evil and not accepted in the Bible.”
- Tonny Onyulo is an author at Religion News Service.
- First published in RNS. Republished with permission.
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