Uganda is set to ban 38 non-governmental organizations or NGO’s over what they say is the group’s promotion of homosexuality and the recruiting of children. Ethics Minister Simon Lokodo, a former Catholic priest, stated that “The NGOs are channels through which monies are channelled to (homosexuals) to recruit.”

The fact that homosexuality is not a behavior, but a genetic variation on humans is ignored by people like Lokodo, who is helping to scapegoat Uganda’s LGBT population in order to get people to ignore the problems facing the nation.

Lokodo has not named the organizations being banned, but he did claim that “I have got a record of meetings that they have held to empower, enhance and recruit (homosexuals).”

Lokodo was responsible on Monday for breaking up an LGBT rights conference which was being held just outside Kampala. Police officers sealed off the venue and detained LGBT activists from around the region. Pepe Julian Onziema, from Sexual Minorities Uganda, stated that “They claimed they (were) investigating a security threat. (The minister) is just trying to intimidate us.”

Fifteen activists were detained, questioned, and then released without charge, and according to Idi Senkumbi, the Kampala Metropolitan police spokesman, “They were questioned on what exactly they were up to and the assembly they were involved in.”

Mohammad Ndifuna, the director of Human Rights Network Uganda, said that the threat from Lokodo was part of a larger attack on civil society. The HRNU is one of the groups being banned. He stated that “We know that they have been all kinds of threats coming towards the (NGO) sector for different reasons.” Uganda threatened to ban Oxfam back in May.