On eve of visit, Obama voices support for Africa gay rights

Workers finish installing a large billboard showing Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta, left, and President Barack Obama, right, in downtown Nairobi, Kenya Thursday, July 23, 2015. In his first trip to Kenya since he was a U.S. senator in 2006, Obama is scheduled to arrive in Kenya on Friday, the first stop on his two-nation African tour in which he will also visit Ethiopia. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is voicing support for gay rights in Africa as he begins a trip to the continent.

Obama is flying Thursday to Kenya for his first stop of the trip. He says in a BBC interview taped just before he left that he disagrees with Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto, who has criticized gay rights in the US.

Obama is likening gay rights to women’s rights, religious rights and civil rights. He says as someone with Kenyan relatives, he knows how Kenya’s history of mistreating women has held it back. Obama says the same values apply to gays, lesbians and transgender people.

READ: Laws on homosexuality in African nations

Obama says he’s been blunt with African leaders about gay rights in the past.

Obama will visit Ethiopia after his visit to Kenya.