Homosexuality remains taboo across most of Africa

The Interfaith Rainbow Coalition Against Homosexuality said the rally at a sports stadium in Kampala showed how much Ugandans deplored homosexuality.

Spokesman Pastor Martin Sempa said that Uganda was under "great external pressure to relax its laws" ahead of November's Commonwealth summit.

In Uganda, homosexuality carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

We are telling them that Africans find homosexuality reprehensible

Pastor Martin Sempa

Does sexual orientation matter?

Pastor Sempa told the BBC's Focus on Africa that homosexuals were using the summit to try and "shame, force, coerce, intimidate Uganda into changing our laws".

"We are telling them that Africans find homosexuality reprehensible. Leave us alone."

The gay community is estimated by activists to number 500,000 in Uganda where they face much discrimination.

Gay activists held a news conference last week but many were afraid to show their faces and wore masks.

They say they are forced to live double lives for fear of harassment and brutality.

Uganda's government rejected their call for recognition and equal rights.