US hotels deny Museveni accommodation over gay rights

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"Our party will handle the issues of homosexuality," the President said while responding to claims that gay rights activists were hiring foreign public relations firms to promote homosexuality

KAMPALA

A group of gay activist in Dallas, Texas last Wednesday forced two hotels to deny President Museveni accommodation, saying he is a human rights violator.

The President had been booked in, according to dallasvoice.com, an online gay rights’ website, Four Seasons Hotel in Irving and a last minute ditch to book him in Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center also fell through after gay activists allegedly mobbed the hotels with calls and requests, demanding that they don’t host him.      

"My people made hotel bookings for me, but homosexuals blocked it. I said tell those people who invited me to find me where to sleep. Am not dying to come to Texas," Ms Sarah Kagingo, Mr Museveni’s special assistant in charge of social media quoted the President in a statement.

However, according to Ms Kagingo, the President was later booked in another hotel - Howdy Lone Star Ranch in Texas.

Mr Museveni was Sunday meeting Ugandan diaspora in Texas to discuss possibilities of investing and contributing to the country’s growth. The president assured potential investors that he had made arrangements through different channels to easy investment in Uganda. 

"I have guided the Uganda Investment Authority to convert into a one-stop-centre. I will soon shake it up to make it responsive to investor needs," the President said.
President Museveni, who publically signed the anti-homosexuality law, had been widely criticised by the western world with donors denouncing the move as a ‘gross abuse of human rights’.

The US at the time of passing the anti-homosexuality law that was subsequently nullified by Constitutional Court warned Mr Museveni and his government, saying the law would force a review of its cooperation with Uganda. Court nulfied the law on grounds that Parliament had passed it without the necessary quorum

A committee composed of NRM legislators is currently reviewing the law and is expected to to release its recommendations soon.

The President in Texas also told a group of Ugandans on Sunday that his party-NRM would handle the issue of the anti-homosexuality law.   

"Our party will handle the issues of homosexuality," the President said while responding to claims that gay rights activists were hiring foreign public relations firms to promote homosexuality.