CNN Tried the Wrong Person on LGBTQ Rights!!

What is your message to Western human rights groups, to President Obama, to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people?

Respect African societies and their values. If you don't agree, you just keep quiet, let's manage our society the way we see. If we are wrong, we shall find out by ourselves. Just the way we don't interfere with the others.

Do you personally dislike homosexuals? Of course, they are disgusting.

What sort of people are they? How can you go... I never knew what they were doing. I've been told recently that what they do is terrible, disgusting. But I was ready to ignore that if there was proof that that's how he was born, abnormal.

But now, the proof is not there.

This is Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni. And what he just said in this interview sounds absolutely shocking to our Western ears. Of course, they are disgusting. It would be considered an unforgivable offense in Western culture to call homosexuals disgusting.

In fact, CNN was so offended by Uganda's policy concerning homosexuality that it created a video titled, Uganda's Climate of Gay Hate.

Homophobia in this deeply conservative Christian nation is rabid.

But in Africa, this kind of shocking language concerning homosexuality is not limited to Uganda and Museveni. Listen to another interview that CNN did with another African leader.

Marriage, Homosexuality, and Human Rights in Africa

So is your aim to eradicate homosexuality completely by forcing people to stay silent or face a prison sentence?

Well, the aim is to make sure that we do protect the institution of marriage and stopping the promotion of homosexuality in our country. If in the process that is achieved, that would be good for our society.

That homosexuality be eradicated from society? That would be good for our society. Do you respect other religions? An individual's right to practice another religion other than Christianity? Yes. So why can't you respect another individual's differing sexual orientation?

Well, I don't think that homosexuality is a human right.

And listen to what Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe said in a speech at the United Nations General Assembly.

We equally reject attempts to prescribe new rights that are contrary to our values, norms, traditions and beliefs.

We are not gays. And listen to what Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta said in an interview with CNN.

One of the major issues, and it's a holdover from sort of colonial Victorian, is the issue of sexual preference in many African countries. In Kenya, to be gay, the LGBT community is illegal. They just want to have equal rights, the same privacy and equality as all other Kenyans do.

Is that something that you aspire to for your country?

I want to be very clear, Christiana. I will not engage in a subject that is of no, it is not of any major importance to the people and the Republic of Kenya. This is not an issue, as you would want to put it, of human rights.

This is an issue of society, of our own base as a culture, as a people, regardless of which community you come from. This is not acceptable. This is not agreeable. This is not about Uhuru Kenyatta saying yes or no.

This is an issue that the people of Kenya themselves, who have bestowed upon themselves a constitution after several years, have clearly stated that this is not a subject that they are willing to engage in at this time and moment.

In years to come, possibly long after I'm president, who knows? Maybe our society will have reached a stage where those are issues that people are willing, freely and open to discuss. I have to be honest with you.

And that is the position that we have always maintained. Those are the laws that we have, and those are laws that are 100 supported by 99 of the Kenyan people, regardless of where they come from.

So, I think you're going to get yourself into trouble. Because what you've categorically just stated is that this is not an issue for us, for the Kenyan people, and you don't think that the idea of their privacy, their equality, their rights is important.

But it's a global issue right now.

It's important to them where they are. Why is it not important to you as president of the country? I am saying that it is not important to me as the leader of 49 million Kenyans. And after, if you want to ask me my personal opinion...

What is your personal opinion? After I finish my process, I can talk about my personal opinion. But as the leader of the people of the Republic of Kenya, I represent that which our people are desirous to be.

And I have no choice, but that is my position.

Would you publicly say that people who are LGBT, gay members of the Kenyan population, should not be discriminated against, should not be violated, should not be abused?

First of all, no Kenyan, no Kenyan should be abused, should be mistreated in any particular... Every Kenyan is protected by law, every single Kenyan. But they also must recognize that their freedoms are also, must be taken into the entire context of the society that they live in.

Because this is not a question of governments accepting or not accepting. This is a question of society, right? Currently it's a legal process. Yes. And that legal process is based on the society that you live in.

And that's why laws are made. So, I think that's all I have to say about that particular subject.

The Scientific Claim That People Are Born Homosexual

The key question here is whether LGBTQ rights are in fact human rights. Museveni pointed out correctly that despite many claims that people are born homosexual, there is simply no definitive scientific evidence that this is the case.

But I was ready to ignore that if there was proof that that's how he's born, abnormal.

But now, the proof is not there. Yeah, because everybody knows that that's how people are born, right? We have the LaVey brain study, you know, Bailey and Pillard's twin study. We have Hamer's X chromosome study.

You know, we've got Savick's pheromone study. So, of course, I mean, all of these things, by the way, none of these things, none of these things, none of these things has proven a genetic connection to homosexuality.

And even if it did, it wouldn't matter. Do you realize that there is nothing that proves that people are homosexual? How do you know? How do you know a person is homosexual? The only way you know is if they tell you.

But there's no way to prove it. There's not even any way to prove that that category of people actually exists as a category, other than just a behavior. There's no way to prove it. How do you prove it?

Is there a blood test? How do you prove it? You can't. You can't. But everybody assumes that it just is.

Marriage as a Foundation for Society

And as the other Ugandan leader said, homosexuality is not a private issue because it undermines the institution of marriage, which is foundational to the survival of societies.

There is a war raging right now in the marketplace of ideas. And it's a war that's raging on many fronts. But one of those fronts is on the front of not just marriage, but the idea of biblical manhood and womanhood and marriage.

Really, a biblical understanding of humanity. What it means to be a man or a woman made in the image of God.

So who is more correct in addressing the issue of homosexuality? These African leaders or our Western leaders?

And to further repair our moral leadership, I'm also issuing a presidential memo to agencies to reinvigorate our leadership on the LGBTQI issues and do it internationally.

Respect African societies and their values.