Keep Your Gays and Keep Your Aid, Uganda Tells the West

Supporters celebrate after Uganda's President Museveni signed
a law imposing harsh penalties for homosexuality in Kampala

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Uganda's ethics minister defends anti-homosexuality law and is indifferent about the withdrawal of Western aid to the country

Uganda is willing to give up all international aid to keep its new anti-homosexuality law and “save gays from damnation”, its ethics minister said as the World Bank followed other donors and froze a £60 million new loan to the country.

“We will not shy away from this, we want to rid this country of homosexuality and if that means these people - Obama, Hague, you name them - want to stop their aid then let them,” Simon Lokodo told The Telegraph.

“We don’t need it, we won’t die poor, and we will at least be able to save these gays from damnation.

“Homosexuality cannot be accommodated in our culture. We have taken that position as a government because this is a democracy and it is what the people want.”

Yoweri Museveni, Uganda’s president of 28 years, signed the new Anti-Homosexuality Act into law on Monday, immediately prompting outrage from Western nations. » | Mike Pflanz, Kampala | Friday, February 28, 2014