PARENTS PETITION AGAINST HOMOSEXUALITY

The African Press Agency reports that parent groups and NGOs in Uganda are calling on parliament to stamp out “increasing cases of homosexuality in schools.”

Stephen Langa from the Uganda Family Life Network said that parliament must set up a commission of inquiry to establish to what extent the phenomenon has spread.

An article in Uganda’s New Vision reported that a man, George Oundo, has come forward claiming that he was part of a movement that recruited children to become homosexuals and that the movement had a long-term strategy to do so.

Activists in the country said that the man has been misrepresented and have dismissed the notion that people can be recruited into “becoming” gay or that such a movement exists.

Langa is also the spokesperson for an “Anti-Gay Task Force” which was set up after a recent controversial high-profile anti-gay conference in the capital Kampala.

The two day conference – which aimed to provide Ugandans with “information and skills to fight” homosexuality – was slammed by international gay and lesbian activists who said that it would increase violence and other human rights abuses against LGBT people.

Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda and carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Despite this, Langa has called for harsher penalties.