Amid a crackdown on LGBT rights,
Tanzania's president, John Magufuli, said that he believes that “even
cows disapprove of” homosexuality.
According to the AFP, Magufuli was
criticizing foreign NGOs and LGBT activists when he made the comment
last week.
“Those who teach such things do not
like us, brothers,” he
said. “They brought us drugs and homosexual practices that
even cows disapprove of.”
The
AFP is reporting that the government has threatened to arrest and
deport LGBT rights supporters.
“If we establish that any
organization registered in our country is campaigning for gay rights
… I will deregister that organization,” Tanzanian Home Affairs
Minister Mwigulu Nchemba is quoted as saying by Reuters.
“If a Tanzanian national is doing that campaign, we will arrest
him and take him to court … and if it is a foreigner, we will
immediately order him to leave the country.”
Gay sex is a crime in Tanzania and in
dozens of other countries in Africa.