Obama likens homophobia to racism during African visit

US President Barack Obama has likened the mindset of homophobia to racial discrimination, encouraging young African leaders to be more accepting of members of the LGBT community.

Following a discussion of gay rights during his presidential visit to Kenya last week, Obama addressed a Young African Leaders Initiative held as a three-day summit in Washington DC.

Pink News reports the topic of sexuality was raised after one participant, a Kenyan woman, questioned the killing of people with albinism – a genetic condition affecting the pigment which colours hair, skin and eyes – in order to harvest their body parts for rituals.

Obama said killing people for differences in their skin pigmentation was “tomfoolery,” in the same way that homophobia prevents you from seeing “somebody else as a human being”.

“I spoke about this in Africa, and everybody is like, oh, oh, we don’t want to hear that,” he said.

“The truth of the matter is, is that if you’re treating people differently just because of who they love and who they are, then there’s a connection between that mindset and the mindset that led to racism, and the mindset that leads to ethnic conflict.”

In comparing the oppression of black people in Africa during European Imperialism to oppression among members of the LGBT community, Obama said you cannot “complain when somebody else does that to you, and then you’re doing it to somebody else”.

“You can’t do it. There’s got to be some consistency to how you think about these issues,” he said.

“And that’s going to be up to young people — because old people get stuck in their ways.”

Sexual activity between people of the same sex is a crime in Kenya which carries a punishment up to 14 years in prison.

Words by TROY NANKERVIS.