STATE HOMOPHOBIA
Small reprieve as Uganda reverses MTN festival ban
After a decidedly rough week, MTN was granted a small reprieve on Wednesday when legislators in Uganda reversed an earlier decision to ban a popular MTN-branded music festival in the country for homophobic reasons. It is a small win for the mobile operator, which has been slapped with demands worth $10.1bn – more than its entire market capitalisation – by two Nigerian authorities over the past week. On Tuesday, Uganda’s minister of state for ethics and integrity, Simon Lokodo, called for the annual MTN Nyege Nyege festival to be cancelled, just days before it was to take place. Lokodo, a reverend, said in a letter to the state he had received "credible information" that the festival would "accommodate the celebration and recruitment of young people into homosexuality…". While the country’s anti-homosexuality law had been challenged in the courts, Lokodo said the practice of "deviant sexual behaviours" had "never been condoned" in Uganda, and the state needed to protect its citizens ...
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