Anti-Gay Preacher May Be Charged Under Uganda's New Law

Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.

In what may be the sweetest case of poetic justice yet, anti-gay Ugandan pastor Martin Ssempa may now be charged under the very same "Anti-Homosexuality Act" that he is trying to promote.

Ssempa is known for screening gay pornography in church and claiming that gay men "eat the poo-poo" and "lick each other's asses like ice cream." In his zeal to expose this, he reportedly explains various sexual acts in explicit detail.

But now, Gay Star News reports that Ssempa may be charged with violating Uganda's new law.

After he held a huge rally of 10,000 people to celebrate the Act being signed into law, some are calling for him to be prosecuted for his obsession with gays and their sexual acts.

Paul Kaliisa from Mbarara University of Science and Technology wrote a letter posted on O-blog-dee-o-blog-da outlining his grievances with the pastor.

"Pastor Ssempa has, if anything, promoted homosexuality where he is allegedly trying to fight is [sic]," wrote Kaliisa. "He is very crude in his delivery that he explains their practices bit by bit in explicit detail."

Kaliisa said that he is appalled by the screening of gay porn before the church congregation, saying, he "has homosexual porn on his laptop and all his gadgets. He almost seems obsessed with it."

In Ssempa's effort to fight "gayism," as they call it, the pastor is instead promoting it, alleges Kalissa. He is helping people realize that "men can have sex with fellow men," and arming them with the techniques to do so.

This will cause youth to find gay sex "less disgusting," says Kaliisa, and to act on their urge to discover the unknown.

Although most of the pastor's "promotion of homosexuality" occurred before the new law was made official on March 10, the threat of punishment against Pastor Ssempa may unintentionally silence anti-gay critics.

LGBT activist Melanie Nathan told Gay Star News that, "If any such good news can be established from the onerous anti-gay laws of Uganda, is that as much as the laws were designed to shut up the LGBTI human rights defenders, and anyone providing much needed services, they will now also serve to shut up their critics and the anti-gay haters such as Ssempa."

"The less we hear about how Martin Ssempa perceives homosexuality with his phoney, disgusting and graphic depictions, the better off all gays around the world will be," said Nathan.


by Winnie McCroy , EDGE Editor

Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.

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