U.S. President Barack
Obama on Saturday delivered a firm message on gay rights during his landmark
visit to Kenya, Africa, where homosexuality is outlawed, triggering strong
criticism for apparently imposing his values on the continent.
Obama arrived Friday in
Kenya, his father’s birthplace, starting his first visit in seven years since
he was elected president to the East African nation that considers him a local
son.
Ignoring cultural
differences between the Western world and Africa, where many religiously
conservative countries do not consider gay rights an issue, Obama called for
gay rights, comparing homophobia to racial discrimination during his talks with
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta.
Obama, who started to
embrace gay marriage in 2012, told Africans that discrimination against gays
was like treating people differently because of race, drawing on his own
background as an African-American. He said he is “painfully aware of the
history when people are treated differently under the law.”
Kenyatta was unmoved,
however, saying gay rights “is not really an issue on the foremost mind of
Kenyans.”
“There are some things
that we must admit we don’t share, our culture, our societies don’t accept. It
is very difficult for us to impose on people what they themselves do not
accept,” he said.
Some African rights
groups had urged Obama to tread cautiously on the issue and a number of Kenyan
political leaders had warned Obama that any overtures on gay rights would not
be welcomed in Kenya, where anti-gay laws have broad public approval and
homosexuality is seen as immoral, punishable by up to 14 years in prison.
In 2014, the United States
stopped some of its aid to Uganda due to the African country’s move to toughen
prison sentences for gays.
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