President Barack Obama forcefully disagreed with Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on gay rights as they stood right by each other in a joint news conference on Saturday.
“With respect to the rights of gays and lesbians, I’ve been consistent all across Africa on this,” Obama said. “I believe in the principle of treating people equally under the law, and that they are deserving of equal protection under the law, and that the state should not discriminate against people based on their sexual orientation.”
Kenyatta responded later on, saying LGBTQ rights is just one of the issues that he and Obama disagree on, CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Eugene Scott reported. “Kenya and the United States, we share so many values,” he said. “But there are some things that we must admit we don’t share — our culture, our societies don’t accept. It’s very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept.”
A Supreme Court decision recently legalized same-sex marriages across the US. But many countries in Africa, including Kenya, still ban same-sex relations altogether. Other countries punish same-sex relations with the death penalty.
Here’s a thorough breakdown of national laws from the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association, which is now slightly outdated since it’s missing the Supreme Court decision affirming marriage equality in the US (click to enlarge):
So while the US is making great strides on LGBTQ rights, much of the rest of the world lags far behind — sometimes dangerously so for LGBTQ people.
