Sodomites, prostitutes should not be equated to teachers and doctors

I was deeply disturbed by Mr Daniel Kalinaki’s article titled, “Those who go after gays and sex workers will one day go after teachers and doctors” (Daily Monitor, February 16), in which he defended the rights of prostitutes and sodomites to freely assemble. He says, “We should not let our moral convictions interfere with our legal obligation to respect the rights of all.” He ends by calling us to suspend our moral integrity so that we can allow the “legal rights” of these two groups!

Equating the meeting of doctors and teachers to a meeting of sodomites and prostitutes is an offence to our moral integrity. Not only are both acts of prostitution and homosexuality criminal but they are also categorised as offences against morality in the Penal Code. You cannot suspend the moral and the legal on this issue, especially when a myriad of laws were being broken by the prostitutes and the sodomites.

Any organisation which is dedicated to the promotion of criminal activities (sodomy and prostitution) is an unlawful organisation and their assemblies are called “unlawful assemblies”. These cannot appeal to the protection of the constitutional law on of the right to free assembly! The law enforcement has a right to break them up and charge them with crimes of an unlawful meeting.

Claiming that homosexuality and prostitution is a crime whereas their meetings are legal disregards the law of “conspiracy to commit a crime whether a felony or misdemeanor”. You don’t have to commit the crime, but the State has a role in preventing the crime. The State Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Fr Simon Lokodo, was entirely justified in breaking up this meeting and he should be commended. He should not be mocked and condemned for his bold and gallant efforts.

Misleading the public that prostitutes and sodomites meetings have the same legal protection is equating the moral with immoral, evil with good. It is wrong to equate evil actions with good actions. In fact, there were probably some homosexuals who teach and or work in the medical industry in the same meetings in Entebbe. They too were scattered not because of their medical and educational work, but rather the conspiracies of infecting our society with the cancer of these immoral activities.

Uganda’s elites who are often educated abroad are more likely to posture as the promoters of these “rights” of minorities. They are told the battle of sodomites is like the battle against slavery and apartheid. This could not be further from the truth because discrimination on the basis of the colour of my skin, which I cannot change, is not equal to my sexual preferences, which can change.

Lastly, Kalinaki should wake up to the great clash of civilisations of Europe and those of Africa. The issue is “who” defines the “human rights” and in what context. The current crop of human rights theories are written and taught by western Eurocentric thinkers who are vastly different from the Afrocentric leaning cultural leaders.

The Eurocentric is largely a post-Christian pagan nation who have abandoned the God of their fathers and they pride themselves as humanists whose greatest value is the choices and rights of individuals. They say, “I am because I am. I can do whatever makes me happy regardless of what society or God says. The Afrocentric African says, “I am because we are”. Community survival and continuity is greater than my individual choices.

I advise all those who find themselves as social misfits not to seek to change us, rather to seek help of the cultural and religious leaders. This is why Fr Lokodo should be applauded not condemned. He is defending a tradition and culture of life, which goes back more than five thousand years of black history.

ssempam@gmail.com