Ugandan Archbishop Stands Up For LGBT People

An archbishop in Uganda is speaking up for LGBT people as the country enters the next chapter with its highly controversial anti-gay law.

According to Gay Star News, John Baptist Odama, the bishop of the Church in Gulu, is urging people not to harm gay people, saying that they are just as human as straight people and are created in the image of God.

"Let us learn to love God's human creatures. It is not that I am advocating for homosexual practice in the country, but we should not take laws into our hands to harm and hate the homosexuals because we all have weaknesses," he said last weekend during Holy Rosary Catholic Church, while presiding over a heterosexual couple's wedding, according to Gay Star News. 'The country has been struggling to have a law to criminalizes homosexuality."

He added: "However, the struggle has been frustrated by the Constitutional Courts. People should not take the laws into their hands and harm homosexuals, since they are also human beings though with different sexual feelings."

The archbishop's comments come as Uganda's Constitutional Court nixed the country's anti-gay law that criminalized and the promotion of homosexuality, punishing those found guilty of both "crimes" with life in prison.

Some Ugandan lawmakers are campaigning to reintroduce the measure just days after it was passed, however. Still, President Yoweri Museveni is urging lawmakers not to rush to reintroduce the anti-gay law, saying it was not a priority and could hurt the country's economy.

The U.S., the World Bank and some European countries delayed or cut off tens of millions of dollars in funding to Uganda's government over the anti-gay law.

Watch an interview with Odama below: