The president of the National Unity Platform (NUP) party, Robert Kyagulanyi, aka Bobi Wine, and the party’s Secretary General, David Lewis Rubongoya, are among the five people from the African continent who have attended a gay rights promotion event in Santiago, Chile, running from November 26-28, 2024.
The workshop, which was organized by the Latin America Liberal Network-RELIAL (Spanish: Red Liberal de América Latina), aimed at bringing together political parties, think tanks, and civil society organizations committed to the principle of respect for human rights, especially LGBTQ rights.
With Latin America being predominantly Catholic, RELIAL is the region’s most significant network of liberal organizations fighting for LGBTQ rights. It is alleged that the network intends to expand its footsteps into Africa, which is why Bobi Wine and other gay rights activists like Elizabeth Adundo, the Head of the International Liberal Women’s Network and the Africa Liberal Network’s Human Rights Committee, were invited to this year’s workshop.
Key speakers at the event have been Siegfried Herzog, the Regional Director of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation in Latin America; and René Klaff, Head of the International Department at the Friedrich Naumann Foundation. The Friedrich Naumann Foundation is one of the leading funders and promoters of gay rights in the whole world.
The two leaders implored the attendees to be ambassadors of liberalism across the globe and put emphasis on the protection and promotion of the rights of sexual minorities across the globe.
While Rubongoya wasn’t among the official presenters on the program, his boss, Bobi Wine, had an hour to speak about the alleged persecution of LGBTQ people in Africa. Bobi Wine remarked that anti-homosexuality sentiments and laws have been “weaponized by authoritarian regimes in Africa to witch-hunt opposition leaders.”
He, however, noted that under his leadership, “which is coming soon,” there will be respect for human rights regardless of people’s sexual orientation.
Bobi Wine’s attendance at the RELIAL workshop underscores his commitment to the promotion and protection of LGBTQ rights in Uganda and Africa at large.
According to the RELIAL website, the network carries out activities throughout the Latin American region to promote liberal values like respect for LGBTQ rights and emphasizes secular humanism, a belief system that embraces secular ethics while specifically rejecting religious dogma as the basis of morality and decision-making.
