Interview: Christopher Senyonjo

dublin | gender and sexuality | news report Monday June 21, 2010 05:26 by Dave Donnellan - -

"Unless you condemn LGBT people you are no longer going to work with us." - Bishops

Bishop Christopher Senyonjo has been described as the Ugandan bishop Tutu. He is currently on a visit to Ireland speaking against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently making its way through the Ugandan parliament. The bill prescribes the death penalty for consensual sexual acts between LGBT people. The bill is partly the outcome of the activities of American pentacostalists working in the country. Christopher has been ostracised by his fellow bishops in Uganda for his stance. Below is a rush transcript of the interview.

Christopher Senyonjo Interview
Rush Transcript

Q. How did you come to be involved in the LGBT community?

A. It came like this, I started counseling in 1998 but in 2001 some young disturbed LGBT people were introduced to me. They were being rejected by the Church. Some had been sent away from school. They were really disturbed and felt they were not good. Even the Church couldn't help them
because they were saying they should change. If they didn't change they would convert to something else, being heterosexuals, they were a gone case. So they were so dejected. They were so unhappy. So I started talking to them, sharing with them. That's how I started actually being involved because I knew about human sexuality. So instead of rejecting them I listened to them.

Q. And what was the reaction of your brothers in the Anglican Communion.

A. In fact that was the beginning of also myself being rejected because I had already retired as a diocesan bishop but I was working with my fellow bishops as a retired person. When you are a bishop and you retire you continue to work. You have seen it when I come here I am bishop. When you are out you are given something to do you do it. But those bishops said now unless you condemn those people you are no longer going to work with us. So that was the beginning of my suffering. But I didn't agree with them that I should stop working with those people when they came to me. That is what has gone on even to this day.

Q. Could you say something about the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and how it came about.

A. Well the Anti-Homosexuality Bill came about because there were people who wanted to preach a gospel which was saying that unless you change according to what they were saying and in the bible for instance these stories about the bible, the bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed because of LGBT people. And then people came and started preaching such a gospel. And because many of our people were religious they listened to them. There was no way of trying to help them see that this passage which talks about, for instance, Sodom and Gomorrah is dealing mostly about lack of hospitality and the misbehaviour of the people sexually, like rape and all that sort of thing and not caring about the poor. That is what it is really about. But nobody would like to listen to that.

So they said now the family would be eroded because if people were LGBT they couldn't have children. So they aroused the feelings of the people. And some of these people came from actually the states, the United States of America. In one conference I saw them talking about this. In fact there's a documentary called 'The Missionaries of Hate'. It had been online. If you see it you will see some of these people in that documentary even supporting the bill saying ... or they would not have probably written it in the way it was written but they think it is right to have such a bill in Uganda. So this is how things have developed. And they have met some members of parliament trying to influence them. In fact after that conference which was in March last year the bill again was drafted and sort of came to the surface in October. And there's this kind of instigation from outside against LGBT. One of them really said “At home we are not really listened to but I would feel that the erosion of family will come to Africa. That's why we want you to understand this.”

Q. Could you describe some of the measures contained in the Anti-Homosexuality Bill?

A. We call it a draconian bill because it goes to the extent of even penalising somebody for not reporting someone he knew to be LGBT. For instance me being a counsellor if I didn't report on someone whom I knew to be LGBT that bill could penalise me. I could be fined even be imprisoned. And if one was committed as LGBT you could be imprisoned for 7 years or for life, life imprisonment. And in some cases you could be sentenced to death, capital punishment, for being, those people, what they are. Not because they are really, for me, they have not done any crime but when you criminalise such a thing you can pass such a bill which is draconian.

Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill 0.03 Mb