U.K. Denies Visa to Gay Ugandan Man
Gay.com
U.K., February 1, 2005
By Ben Townley
SUMMARY: A gay Christian man from Uganda who was
expected to speak at an Anglican conference in Britain may have to cancel
because U.K. immigration officials refused him a visa.
A gay Christian man from Uganda who was expected to speak
at an Anglican conference in Britain may have to cancel his appearance because
U.K. immigration officials refused him a visa to enter the country.
According to The Guardian, Chris Stentaza was refused
entry because Ugandan officials have an arrest warrant for him based on his
sexuality. After facing continuous obstacles in his bid to get a visa for the
meeting, which was scheduled for today, Stentaza was rejected last month by
the British high commission in Kampala.
Stentaza had been asked to visit the U.K. in order to
discuss the issue of sexual diversity within developing countries, according
to the newspaper. His thoughts would then be passed on to a meeting of
Anglican leaders in Northern Ireland later this month.
A former head teacher in a religious school, Stentaza was
sacked after speaking to gay Christians at a Manchester conference in 2003.
The conference was called in light of the threat of schism throughout the
Anglican Communion, after Gene Robinson was appointed a bishop in the United
States.
Homosexuality is a crime in Uganda and is punishable by
life imprisonment.
“This is appalling because it compromises the
church’s ability to seek responses to its policy apart from those in the
five or six provinces of the Anglican Communion where homosexuality is not a
crime,” the Rev. Colin Coward of Changing Attitudes, a pro-gay group in the
Church of England, told the newspaper.
“The British government is failing to recognize that
there are people applying for visas who need support and encouragement to
enable them to take part in the church’s consultation processes,” Coward
said. “It was important for Chris’s voice to be heard.”
This
month’s Northern Ireland meeting will see primates from across the
70-million-member Anglican Communion coming together to discuss a response to
last year’s Windsor Report. The study looked into sexual diversity within
the Anglicanism, and was called in a bid to halt the split throughout its
members. Already, however, the split remains ever present, with the United
States refusing to apologize for choosing Robinson.
Additionally, traditional members of the communion are
threatening to form their own church if the pro-gay members are not punished
accordingly.
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