Obama Admin: Quiescent on Ukraine but Strident on Ugandan Gay Rights

Obama Admin: Quiescent on Ukraine but Strident on Ugandan Gay Rights

If your country is invaded by Russia, with thousands of its troops occupying your homeland, don’t expect much from the Obama administration, but if you pass anti-gay laws, the Obama Administration will act faster than you can say “Uganda.” After Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni passed a law that gave a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality, the Obama Administration leaped into action, saying it would review all U.S funded programs in the country.

National Security Council spokesman Jonathan Lalley confirmed that there are four steps the Administration will take:

  1. The Inter-Religious Council of Uganda, which supports the anti-gay law, will lose millions of dollars in grants from the United States it has been receiving to counter  the HIV/AIDS epidemic.  $2.3 million will still be used to treat 50,000 current patients, but $6.4 million more will be withheld.
  2. A U.S. funded study intended to identify populations at risk of contracting HIV/AIDS is now defunded and extinct.
  3. $3 million for tourism programs: gone.
  4. Defense Department events scheduled for Uganda: gone.

Lalley added, “As we continue to consider the implications of President Museveni’s decision to enact the Anti-Homosexuality Act, the United States has taken certain immediate steps to demonstrate our support for the LGBT community in Uganda, deter other countries from enacting similar laws, and reinforce our commitment to the promotion and defense of human rights for all people – including LGBT individuals – as a U.S. priority.”

Secretary of State John Kerry said last week that U.S. “experts” would consult with President Museveni about homosexuality. Museveni has stated that no one is “born gay.” Kerry intoned, “I talked personally to President Museveni just a few weeks ago, and he committed to meet with some of our experts so that we could engage him in a dialogue as to why what he did could not be based on any kind of science or fact, which is what he was alleging.”

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