Kampala, Uganda - A senior member of the Anglican Church has thrown support behind the government move in a bid to phase homosexuality out of the country.
Rev. Michael Esakan Okwi said on Friday that not even "cockroaches" who are in the "lower animal kingdom" engaged in homosexual relations.
"What about the human being who was made in God's image?" he asked at the funeral service in All Saints Cathedral - Kampala for Tom Omongole, the former Resident District Commissioner of Bukedea.
Rev. Okwi also lectures Theology and Philosophy at the Uganda Christian University. The law prescribes a seven-year jail term for gay sex and a death penalty for certain types of offences like homosexual rape.
It was introduced as a private member's Bill by Ndorwa West MP David Bahati and has since kicked off an international storm with a number of Western governments and human rights groups describing it as hateful.
This week, Dr Nsaba Buturo, the Minister for Ethics and Integrity, told a news conference at the Uganda Government Media Centre, that the country would not bow to foreign pressure over homosexuality, which he again denounced as an immoral practice that is unacceptable in Uganda.
Countries like Sweden have threatened to withhold aid to Uganda over the proposed law. During the recently concluded Commonwealth Summit in Trinidad and Tobago, the anti-gay bill acquired instant international notoriety.