The following appeared in the January/February 2024 issue of The Lenawee Voice.

We don’t intend to often use this space to discuss things that happen outside of Lenawee County, but sometimes a news story comes along that’s so egregious that it can’t be allowed to go without comment.

The wholehearted embrace by Rep. Tim Walberg (R-Tipton) of a cruel, extremist, anti-gay regime in Uganda is one such item.

Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, recently signed a draconian law that makes homosexuality punishable by up to life in prison — or by death, for anyone convicted more than once. The law is so obviously wrong that it’s been condemned by figures as far apart as President Joe Biden and Republican Senator Ted Cruz. 

Yet our congressman, just five months after the bill was signed into law, chose to speak at a Ugandan prayer breakfast where he heaped lavish praise on Museveni and urged Uganda to “stand firm” in the face of near-universal condemnation.

We’re at a loss as to why an American congressman would laud a regime with such contempt for human rights, and give such full-throated support to its defiance of the United States and the international community.

A quick look at census data shows us that Walberg likely has thousands of constituents who would be considered criminals in Uganda simply because of who they love. This is not one of those topics where we can “agree to disagree” — this is a question of whether LGBTQ+ individuals should be considered fully human. And here is our congressman, singing the praises of a leader who literally thinks thousands of people in Michigan’s 5th Congressional District deserve to be imprisoned or killed.

We guess those constituents now have a pretty good idea of how much regard their elected representative has for them.