Ugandan President warns against oral sex because 'the mouth is for eating'

Strangely, there are few topics more controversial than sex.

Just last weekend, the University of Tennessee raised a few conservative eyebrows with it’s fifth annual ‘sex week’, packed with genius lecture names including ‘Butt Stuff 2.0: The Pegging’ and ‘Sucking D & Licking P’.

Organised by an on-campus group promoting sexual awareness, the event evidenced that, even in seemingly progressive countries, the mere mention of anal can still send adults into meltdown.

Uganda is, to put it lightly, less progressive, as evidenced in a recent speech given by President Yoweri Museveni.

In the short monologue, he talks of practices “promoted by outsiders”, before going on to specifically name oral sex. Clarifying his feelings on the matter, he states – with a bemused look on his face:

The mouth is for eating, not for sex.

He doesn’t clarify who these “outsiders” are, but it’s fair to assume given the country’s strict laws on homosexuality – it is prohibited for both men and women, and can be punished by a lengthy prison sentence – that he’s referring to the LGBT+ community.

Despite these laws, activists are planning a Pride event this year despite the threat of legal persecution and the traumatic memory of a police crackdown at a similar 2016 event. As celebrations came to a close, police stormed events and staged a brutal intervention, beating, torturing and arresting revellers.

Although tightened since their intitial introduction, the country’s anti-gay laws were first introduced by the British Empire – a fact which Theresa May recently claimed to “deeply regret” earlier this week at the Commonwealth Heads of Goverment Meeting. Urging reform, she stated that this legislation was “wrong then and wrong now”, and that:

Nobody should face discrimination or persecution because of who they are or who they love.

The UK stands ready to help any Commonwealth member wanting to reform outdated legislation that makes such discrimination possible.

May’s rousing speech came after campaigners – including All Out, which recently lit up the Houses of Parliament in an act of protest – pressured the Prime Minister to speak out. Her words may be an undeniable step in the right direction, but it’s still highly unlikely she’ll ever convince Museveni to abandon his anti-oral crusade.

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