Senyonjo holds secret gay meeting
News | June 16, 2009
http://www.monitor.co.ug/artman/publish/news/Senyonjo_holds_secret_gay_meeting_86540.shtml
Alfred Wandera & Martin Ssebuyira
Kampala
A former Anglican Church cleric and human rights advocate, Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, yesterday convened a secret gay meeting to discuss the rights and ways of dealing with the ever increasing public resentment.
In a secret meeting dubbed ‘Horn of Africa Human Rights Defenders’ at Imperial Resort Beach Hotel in Entebbe, participants were mainly young men with braided hair while female participants were clad in male suits.
Bishop Senyonjo was excommunicated from the Anglican Church a few years ago over his sympathy with gay practices.
The sources at the hotel who preferred anonymity said the meeting was organised by Akina Mama wa Afrika to address gay problems.
They said it is a an annual international event organised since 2006.
The participants of the meeting were afraid of the media and they kept on dodging journalists.
“It is not a gay conference. I am just helping to counsel these young men of a sexual minority group,” Bishop Senyonjo stammered after being besieged by journalists during a conference break.
He said he is a trained counselor in sexuality who wants to aid the isolated groups.
“You can’t judge these people by merely looking at them. You need to talk to them to know their problems to help them,” he said, adding that associating with the gays made his church to misunderstand him leading to his dismissal.
Bishop Senyonjo, formerly bishop of west Buganda Diocese, was ordered to stop wearing deaconry robes and formed a new denomination called the Charismatic Church of Uganda where he was consecrated bishop.
