A Dallas-area hotel abruptly cancelled the stay of President Yoweri Museveni as a way of protesting Uganda’s anti-gay policies.
On Wednesday morning, an LGBT news website, the Dallas Voice reported that a hotel in Dallas, Four Seasons in Irving cancelled the accommodations that Museveni and his first lady had booked.
Instead, Museveni was “currently negotiating with the Gaylord Texan Resort and Convention Center in Grapevine to host his stay.”
When ThinkProgress reached out to the Four Seasons, the hotel’s Director of Marketing, Lance Peters, said he was “not able to comment on any guest that may or may not be here” due to guest privacy rules.
But the Gaylord Texan did confirm that Museveni and his entourage had reached out to the hotel for alternate lodging.
“They did inquire about staying, but we’re not able to accommodate them because of the short-term notice and requirements that they had,” Martha Neibling, the Texan’s director of marketing and public relations, told ThinkProgress in a phone call.
The president is scheduled to be in Texas this weekend to speak in Irving at the local Convention Center.
Museveni is in Dallas to promote tourism and look for investors in his country’s oil and gas industry.
“Several members of the Ugandan community asked members of the LGBT community to join them protesting Museveni and the genocide he has repeatedly threatened to unleash on the gay community,” the Dallas Voice’s article said.
The story noted that protesters were planning to meet ahead at the Irving Convention Center to meet the Ugandan president.
Uganda’s Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality law last year and President Museveni signed it in February. It was struck down in August because it was passed without the required quorum in Parliament.
The law called for life in prison for aggravated homosexuality. This includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, serial offenders and sex with minors.
