‘These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa. Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear. And they are living in hiding’
SOUNDBITES — “Uganda’s parliament is debating legislation that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment, and more discriminatory legislation has been debated in Rwanda and Burundi. These are terrible backward steps for human rights in Africa. Our lesbian and gay brothers and sisters across Africa are living in fear. And they are living in hiding — away from care, away from the protection the state should offer to every citizen and away from health care in the AIDS era, when all of us, especially Africans, need access to essential HIV services. That this pandering to intolerance is being done by politicians looking for scapegoats for their failures is not surprising. But it is a great wrong. An even larger offense is that it is being done in the name of God. Show me where Christ said ‘Love thy fellow man, except for the gay ones.’ Gay people, too, are made in my God’s image. I would never worship a homophobic God.” —Desmond Tutu on the harm in Uganda’s Kill The Gays bill [via]
I love this man. Every time some anti-gay bigot pops off about us, using their religion as a shield, someone like Desmond Tutu, or John Spong steps forward and ministers love and acceptance towards us.
A beautiful soul, no doubt about it.
The man rules.
Fabulous, and well said.
Just in case anyone hasn’t noticed, or is ignoring the fact, these are the words of a black African man who is also Archbishop of the Anglican Christian Church.
It’s good to see such an influential man in Africa speaking out about this problem. Until now, it was mostly people outside of Africa who lifted their voices against it. It’s great to get support outside, but internal support is even better.
amen
Wow, that’s why he’s fucking Desmond Tutu.
Has anyone ever received two Nobel prizes?
I wish ChitownKev was reading this article and thread, but alas, he’s just a sock puppet for Roots or some other AA “fight the power” blog. GO Desmond.
Amazing: A Bishop we can be proud of!! Maybe the hierarchy in the vatican can take a cue from this man………..