Ugandan President Yoweri Kaguta
Museveni has warned that cutting foreign aid over gay rights would
also affect gay men and lesbians, the BBC
reported.
Museveni was responding to a memorandum
signed earlier this month by President Barack Obama which ties
some foreign aid to gay rights.
“Before anyone gives me a lecture
about homosexuals and their rights, first talk about railways,”
Museveni said. “Homosexuals also need electricity, homosexuals
also need roads, homosexuals also need railways.”
Museveni was speaking at a regional
meeting in Kampala attended by five other African presidents. His
comments drew applause.
MP David Bahati in 2009 introduced a
controversial bill that would increase the penalties for being gay in
a nation where it is already punishable by up to life in prison. The
measure proposes putting repeat offenders to death under certain
circumstances. It also would criminalize discussion of homosexuality
and penalized a person who knowingly rents to a person who is gay or
lesbian. The bill was recently re-introduced in the Ugandan
parliament.