Cuomo Slams Zohran Mamdani for Smiling Photo with Ugandan Official Internationally Known for Supporting Anti-LGBTQ “Kill the Gays” Bill
“If He’s Smiling, He’s Lying.”
New York, NY — Andrew M. Cuomo, candidate for Mayor of New York City, today issued the following statement in response to a New York Post report showing Zohran Mamdani meeting and smiling with Rebecca Kadaga, a Ugandan official internationally known as a major proponent of the notorious “Kill the Gays” law that ultimately made same-sex relationships punishable by life in prison:
“This summer, while New York City was reeling from the mass shooting on Park Avenue that claimed the life of an NYPD officer, Zohran Mamdani was meeting and posing for smiling photographs with Rebecca Kadaga — the same Ugandan official known worldwide for championing one of the most heinous anti-LGBTQ laws in modern history.
Mamdani now claims he didn’t know who she was. That is laughable. Kadaga’s crusade against Uganda’s LGBTQ community has been condemned globally for well over a decade. Any serious public official, particularly one from Uganda, would know exactly who she is.
How does a self-proclaimed progressive candidate for mayor of New York City - the birthplace of Stonewall, the city that led the fight for equality — find himself smiling beside one of the most notorious anti-LGBTQ figures on the planet? And how does he maintain dual citizenship in a country that criminalizes people simply for who they love?
As Governor, I was proud to make New York the first big state in the nation to pass marriage equality. We enacted GENDA to protect transgender New Yorkers, legalized surrogacy so families could grow with dignity, and built on the legacy of Stonewall to make equality not just a slogan but the law of the land.
New Yorkers deserve a mayor who stands on principle, not one who hides behind excuses. Zohran Mamdani has shown one quality time and again: duplicity.
And as we’ve learned, if he’s smiling, he’s lying.”
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