The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Last month, English actor, author, and comedian Stephen Fry appeared on The Late Late Show for an hour-long interview with host Craig Ferguson. The conversation turned to Fry's outspoken activism on LGBT rights, and he brought up a BBC documentary he's been working on for the last several years, called Out There, which focuses on the experiences of LGBT people in different parts of the world.

Fry noted that the documentary brought him to places as diverse as Russia, Brazil, India, the United States, and Uganda. And then he dropped a bombshell:

I actually got a Ugandan minister to say on camera -- he's the Minister for Ethics and Integrity; it's the only such ministry in the world -- and I said to him, 'Look, even if these... utterly false supports on which you base your homophobia were true, which they aren't, there's so much more to worry about in your country than the odd gay person going to bed with the other gay person. For example, you have almost an epidemic of child rape in this country, which is just frightening.' And he said, 'Ah, but it is the right kind of child rape.' 

Ferguson and the audience were understandably stunned. Fry continued:

I said 'That was on camera. Do you know that that was on camera?' He said yes. I said, 'Can you just explain what you mean? He said, 'Well, it is men raping girls, which is natural.'

Watch, after the jump.

Melanie Nathan at O-blog-dee-o-blog-da identified the child-rape apologist as Father Simon Lokodo, a former Roman Catholic priest who was defrocked by the Vatican for violating the canon law which prohibits priests from holding political office. She writes,

As it happens Simon Lokodo has previously declared his own celibacy. The man is suspect and I have often wondered if he himself is gay and his fervent anti-gay persecution of fellow Ugandans has always been suspicious.

Lokodo, who indeed currently serves as Uganda's (and the world's only) Minister of Ethics and Integrity, is currently being sued by Ugandan activists for forcing the closure of at least two LGBT-related meetings, despite the fact that such gatherings are not currently against the law. He also recently proposed a law that would make wearing a miniskirt a crime punishable by fines or jail. It would also ban any celebrities wearing such clothing from Ugandan television, because as he says, "Television should not broadcast a sexy person."

But men raping children? Meh, that's natural. Provided they're raping female children, that is.

Keep it classy, Uganda.