President Barack Obama on Saturday lectured Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta about his country's gay rights record.
Under Kenyan law, sexual activity between men is illegal and punishable with a maximum imprisonment of 14 years.
"When you start treating people differently not because of any harm they are doing to anybody, but because they are different, that's the path whereby freedoms begin to erode," Obama said at a joint press conference with the Kenyan leader in Nairobi. "And bad things happen."
Obama equated legalized discrimination of gays to legalized racism in America.
"And when a government gets in a habit of people treating people differently, those habits can spread," Obama continued. "As an African-American, I am painfully aware of what happens when people are treated differently under the law."
Kenyatta, however, said that while the U.S. and Kenya share many common values and goals, gay rights is not one of them.
"It is very difficult for us to be able to impose on people that which they themselves do not accept," Kenyatta said. "This is why I repeatedly say for Kenyans today the (gay rights issue) is generally a non-issue. We want to focus on other areas."
After that comment, a small amount of applause was heard, presumably from some of the audience attending.
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