Now whatever you think of Secretary of State John Kerry’s handling of diplomacy towards Russia or the Israelis and Palestians, you have to acknowledge this initiative is pretty cool:
The Ugandan president committed to meeting with American “experts” on homosexuality to try to change his mind about the Anti-Homosexuality Act signed into law last month, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday during a forum at the State Department moderated by BuzzFeed.
Museveni claimed to have signed the law, which imposes up to a lifetime prison sentence for homosexuality, after being convinced no one is “born gay.”
“I talked personally to President Museveni just a few weeks ago, and he committed to meet with some of our experts so that we could engage him in a dialogue as to why what he did could not be based on any kind of science or fact, which is what he was alleging,” Kerry said. “He welcomed that and said that he was happy to receive them and we can engage in that kind of conversation… maybe we can reach a point of reconsideration.”
Kerry made it clear that if this doesn’t do the trick, other, likely more coercive, measures may be applied to influence Ugandan policies. But countering pseudo-science with real science is a solid first step.
I feel quite sure Kerry wishes he could use the same approach with climate change deniers.
