Prominent Mormon Has Ties to Uganda’s ‘Kill the Gays’ Pastor
An article recently posted on the website of LGBT media watchdog Equality Matters reveals the ties between Sharon Slater and Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” pastor Martin Ssempa. Slater, a Mormon, is the president of Family Watch International. Under the seemingly benign slogan, “Promoting Family Based Solutions to World Problems,” the organization fights marriage equality worldwide, advocates “curing” homosexuals of their “disease,” and opposes the use of condoms in Africa, which in 2007 was home to more 88% of people living with HIV and the site of 92% of all AIDS deaths.
Family Watch International lists Martin Ssempa as their African coordinator, describing him as an “internationally renowned family activist.” That evidently is code for the fact Ssempa, an evangelical minster, is a vocal supporter of Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, which makes homosexual activity punishable by life in prison and, in some cases, death.
The bill has been criticized by religious and human rights organizations, which have called ignorant and barbaric. President Barack Obama has called the bill “odious.” An editorial in the New York Times stated that “the United States and others need to make clear to the Ugandan government that such barbarism is intolerable and will make it an international pariah.”