GOP lawmaker told Uganda to “stand firm” on its “Kill the Gays” bill

U.S. Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) gave a speech in Uganda where he told the East African nation to “stand firm” against international pressure. Uganda was facing pressure from the U.S. and international organizations that oppose its Anti-Homosexuality Act, which permits the death penalty as a punishment for homosexuality.

Walberg didn’t specifically mention the bill in his October speech at Uganda’s National Prayer Breakfast, but he mentioned the World Bank, the World Health Organization (WHO), the UN, and the U.S., all of which had issued statements or actions against Uganda in response to the Anti-Homosexuality Act. He also made jokes about transgender identities.

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“Whose side do we want to be on?” he said in the speech. “God’s side. Not the World Bank, not the United States of America necessarily, not the U.N. — God’s side.” The World Bank stopped loans to Uganda because of the law, the U.S. imposed visa restrictions because of the law, and the UN condemned the law as “an egregious violation of human rights.”

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Uganda President Yoweri Museveni, who signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law last year, was in attendance, and the event was organized by Member of Parliament David Bahati, one of the Anti-Homosexuality Act’s chief advocates.

Walberg spoke directly to Museveni in his speech.

“Your esteemed president, His Excellency President Museveni, needs a nation that stands with him and says, though the rest of the world is pushing back on you, though there are other major countries that are trying to get into you and ultimately change you, stand firm. Stand firm,” Walberg said. “And he knows that he has a Parliament and he has people and he has a clergy and he has members of the civil society and he has members around the world, even congressmen like me, who will say we stand with you.” 

“I’m not going to give in to them,” he said, predicting that Americans wouldn’t like his speech because it effectively supported death to LGBTQ+ people. “Someone once said we honor Christ, we do not defend the honor of Christ. He can do it himself. Let’s honor him. He will bring the best even through trials to individuals to families to countries if we walk with Him.” 

He also said that there are only two genders in his speech and that children are being “groomed” – an anti-LGBTQ+ slur that the right uses to imply that all LGBTQ+ people are child sex abusers. He joked that he now identifies as a Labrador retriever.

“I love that dog and for a day I’d love everybody love me, so I’m a yellow Labrador retriever,” he said. “Who doesn’t like a yellow Labrador retriever?” 

“As someone who grew up in Michigan with a gay mom, this kind of bigotry is disturbing — especially since it comes from someone with a platform as a Congressman,” U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) wrote on X in response to a news story about Walberg’s speech.

As someone who grew up in Michigan with a gay mom, this kind of bigotry is disturbing — especially since it comes from someone with a platform as a Congressman. https://t.co/ikPC5Xomxe

— Elissa Slotkin (@ElissaSlotkin) January 3, 2024

A spokesperson for Walberg told the Detroit Free Press that he was not referring to the Anti-Homosexuality Act in the speech. They said the speech “clearly shows that he never endorsed any Ugandan legislation or law, and he does not support the criminalization of homosexuality.”

But then the spokesperson appeared to confirm that Walberg was, in fact, referring to the Anti-Homosexuality Act, saying that “Uganda, a Christian nation,” is being held “to a different standard” since other countries get “uncriticized support from the World Bank.”

While homosexual sex was already punishable by life imprisonment under the country’s colonial-era penal code, the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act imposes a 20-year sentence for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities” and even bans identifying as LGBTQ+. It makes what the law describes as acts of “aggravated homosexuality” – defined as same-sex relations involving HIV-positive people, children, and other vulnerable groups – punishable by the death penalty. 

Ugandan LGBTQ+ people are already suffering the effects of the law, which include increased attacks. One gay activist in Uganda, Steven Kabuye, was stabbed last week, and he blames “politicians who are using the LGBTQ+ community as a scapegoat to move people away from what is really happening in the country.”

Rightwing groups from the U.S. pushed for the Anti-Homosexuality Act, including Family Watch International, an SPLC-designated hate group based in Arizona. Family Watch International President Sharon Slater has a close relationship with Museveni’s wife, Janet Museveni, as well as with Uganda MP Martin Ssempa, one of the most enthusiastic supporters of the Kill the Gays law.

“I recently had the honor of meeting with Ms. Sharon Slater, President of Family Watch International, & her team,” Janet Museveni tweeted last year. “They attended the first African Regional Inter-Parliamentary Conference in Uganda, focusing on global challenges that threaten African families & values.” 

Walberg has gotten consistent scores of “0” on HRC’s Congressional Scorecard, showing his solid opposition to LGBTQ+ equality in the U.S.