Editor, 

ON THE one hand, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni did a good thing (signing an anti-gay law, this week) because he acted in accordance with the opinion of the majority of Ugandans. On the other hand, it is difficult to predict how many decades this anti-gay law will last.

Recent history indicates that in the 1950s throughout the 1980s, there were strong anti-gay and lesbian laws (federal, state, and local) in the United States of America. The FBI and other law enforcement agencies were used, every single minute, to crackdown and kill any person identified as gay or lesbian.

The irony was that the more gays and lesbians were killed, the more their number was increasing nationwide. As time went by, the federal government was forced to recognise gays and lesbians as part of the American society.

This is where the United States is today, even though there are still some conservative people who do not like it. 

The big dilemma with Uganda and Africa in general is that the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender) movements have become a global human right issue. It is now a new covering that Western powers (Washington, London, Paris, etc.) will possibly use to influence African politics.

LGBT issue might be also utilised to recruit new African leaders to serve the interests of the West. 

There is no doubt that gay and lesbian practice is not part of African values but the question remains: How African leaders are going to deal with this while they are still receiving both support and instructions from their Western donors?

Let’s wait and see what the future will come out with.

Eddy Chico, Baltimore, United States

Reaction to the story, "Museveni now signs anti-gay Bill into law” (The New Times, February 25)