LGBT Groups Protest Minister's Uganda Ties

LGBT activists and allies will hold a vigil Sunday at the Reverend Lou Engle's International House of Prayer in Kansas City, Mo., calling attention to his work with antigay forces in Uganda.

National groups Soulforce and the Human Rights Campaign are organizing the action, where they will be joined by volunteers from local gay organization Equal, which conducted a protest of Engle's activities in December. They will deliver petitions with 36,000 signatures demanding an end to U.S.-supported ministries in Uganda that have helped spread homophobia in that nation, where a bill allowing for the death penalty for homosexuality in certain circumstances is pending in parliament.

Engle, cofounder of a ministry known as The Call, has claimed to oppose the legislation, but he appeared at a rally in Uganda that focused on prayers for the bill, and there he discussed the "threat of homosexuality," characterized as a "satanic attack against families." HRC and Soulforce sent him a joint letter this month asking him to formally renounce the bill and requesting a dialogue with him.

The activists will begin their vigil in front of Engle's church at 7:45 a.m. Sunday. For more information, click here.