As I noted yesterday, David Bahati, currently in Washington DC representing the Ugandan Parliament, was barred from entrance to a conference on financial management hosted by the International Consortium of Governmental Financial Management.
ICGFM spokesman, Doug Hadden, told me that Bahati “arrived mid-morning and was informed of the decision [to bar him from the conference]. There was a frank but calm discussion and Mr. Bahati was not able to enter the building.”
Contacted by email, Mr. Bahati said the ICGFM’s action “has exposed the level of intolerance that is inconsistent with the values of American people.” He added, “My resolve to defend the future of our children and the traditional family in Uganda is intact.”
Bahati’s statement is nearly identical to one made to the Uganda Daily Monitor today. The Monitor article added
The other MPs attending the conference are Ms Grace Kyomugisha (UPDF), Mr Gaud Kabondo (Bunyaruguru), Mr William Nsubuga (Buvuma) and Sarah Nyombi (Ntejeru North).
The Uganda delegation later met the Deputy Assistant of Secretary of State Bureau of African Affairs, Ms Karl Wycoff, and raised the matter.
According to a posting on Jeff Sharlet’s C-Street Facebook page, there may be a clue about some American support for Bahati’s work.
Uganda’s leading anti-gay campaigner, Family man David Bahati, is in the U.S. He wanted to talk to Rachel Maddow, so I hooked him up. Her interview with Bahati will be on the show tonight. Interesting side note: He’s being escorted to media appointments by a recently retired senior Department of Education official whom… he met through the man’s Ugandan missionary work with an anti-gay Anglican religious movement.
Developing…