Whoopi Goldberg to Uganda: “You’re on the wrong side of history”
By Nick Levine
Whoopi Goldberg has made a YouTube video in which she tells the Presidents of Uganda and Nigeria: “You’re on the wrong side of history.”
On Monday (February 24), Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed off on legislation which means that gay people now face life imprisonment if they repeatedly break the laws around homosexuality.
In January, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan implemented laws banning same-sex marriages, the formation of LGBT groups and any display of public affection between two people of the same gender.
“Gay people, black people, people people — we’re all human,” Goldberg says in her video message, which she made for the Human Rights Campaign. “We have all faced these issues. … We don’t put up with it any more in the United States because it’s wrong. It’s wrong for us. It’s wrong for you.”
The comedian and Oscar-winning actress also insists, plainly: “It isn’t right to imprison someone for who they are, for who they love.”
Goldberg ends her video with a call for action. “I’m asking people to show their solidarity,” she says. “Share this – let people know what’s going on in the world because you can’t stand by.”
Watch her full video message below.
[youtube height=”HEIGHT” width=”WIDTH”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkAVsMVchIk[/youtube]