Last October, a bill was introduced in the Ugandan parliament that would make homosexuality punishable by life imprisonment or even death. The bill also calls for the extradition of Ugandans who engage in homosexual sex in other countries and for criminal penalties for individuals, media, or non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that support lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) equality. The bill, currently languishing in legislative limbo, is a potent illustration of the delicate juncture at which the international LGBT rights movement finds itself. Whether one enjoys all the rights and privileges accorded straight citizens — or faces chilling consequences for merely being identified as an LGBT person — is, in many cases, entirely contingent on geography. Come out as a lesbian in Spain today and you can marry your partner. Have your gay identity discovered in Iran and you might be publicly executed. LGBT rights have become a global flashpoint highlighting conflicting views of modernity and tradition, morality and immorality.
While Uganda is only one of thirty-eight African nations that criminalize homosexuality in some way, the role of U.S. evangelicals in politically mobilizing the Ugandan legislators spearheading the anti-gay bill is distinctive. Reverend Rick Warren, best-selling author of The Purpose-Driven Life, compared homosexuality to pedophilia during a 2008 visit. In March 2009, a conference in Kampala featured Christian evangelicals Scott Lively, Caleb Brundidge, and Don Schmierer, all well-known proponents of the belief that homosexuality can be “cured.” According to its Ugandan organizer, Stephen Langa, the meeting’s theme was “the gay agenda — that whole hidden and dark agenda” — and the threat homosexuals allegedly pose to Christian values and the traditional African family. For three days, thousands of conference attendees, including police officers, educators, and public officials, listened to the U.S. trio equating homosexuality with the rape of teenage boys, promiscuity, and disease while characterizing the LGBT rights movement as “evil.”[1]
Although Lively, Brundidge, and Schmierer claim that they did not intend to inspire an anti-gay furor, that is precisely what happened. One month after the conference, Member of Parliament David Bahati introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill and set Uganda on a collision course with Western nations. LGBT activists and journalists immediately began blasting the bill, the Ugandan government, and U.S. evangelicals exporting their anti-gay ideology to Africa.
At first, top Ugandan officials remained defiant in the face of donor counties’ complaints that the proposed bill violates human rights. President Yoweri Mueveni openly supported the bill. James Nsaba Buturo, minister of ethics and integrity, declared, “Homosexuals can forget about human rights.” But, in the face of denunciations and threats to withdraw aid by several Western governments and scores of religious groups and NGOs, Mueveni and Buturo expressed willingness to substitute the death penalty provision with life imprisonment. Yet Bahati will not withdraw his bill. He avows, “The process of legislating a law to protect our children against homosexuality and defending our family values must go on.”[2]
Bahati’s intransigence greatly alarms LGBT and human rights advocates. Before the bill’s introduction, gay men and women in Uganda faced the threat of “correctional rapes,” blackmail, and physical violence; however, they were also making some progress in challenging laws punishing homosexual behavior. Now, LGBT Ugandans are terrified that the bill will spark a wave of killings in a nation where mob violence in response to minor offensives like theft is already commonplace.
While they may not have fully appreciated the extent of homophobia in Uganda, U.S. evangelicals’ portrayal of LGBT people as a threat to the African family has had chilling consequences. One Ugandan newspaper printed the names of suspected homosexuals and another published tips on identifying LGBT people. In February 2010, Martin Ssemba, a Ugandan pastor and former spiritual ally of Rick Warren, showed gay pornography to his congregation in order to justify his support for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. It is no wonder that Warren and other U.S. evangelicals closely aligned with those promoting the bill are now publicly castigating its “un-Christian” penalties. Nor is it terribly surprising that many LGBT Ugandans have fled or are attempting to free the country.
The saddest aspect of the anti-gay persecution in Uganda is the fact that it is echoed around the world. Indeed, while many Western nations have been bitterly critical of the Ugandan leadership, the governments of Nigeria, Cameroon, Burundi, Rwanda, and Gambia have also been escalating their attacks on LGBT people. Nor is such anti-gay sentiment confined to Africa. Approximately 80 countries continue to criminalize homosexuality, with penalties ranging from twelve months to life imprisonment. Over half of these nations were former British colonies which have retained or expanded laws originally imposed by the British at the height of 19th century imperialism. In states that enforce Islamic law, LGBT people are regularly sentenced to public beheadings, stonings, lashings, and imprisonment.
Despite these horrors, no international human rights convention expressly acknowledges sexual expression or identity as a human right. None unequivocally demands equality for LGBT people or specifically protects the right of an individual to love a person of the same gender. No international agreement recognizes the rights of same-sex couples. Of the 192 member states of the United Nations, only a few accord LGBT citizens full equality: the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain, France, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
The United States is a glaring omission from this list. While Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has spoken out against the anti-LGBT violence documented in the March 2010 State Department report on international human rights abuses and President Barack Obama has publicly criticized the bill pending in Uganda, it is difficult to ignore the fact that over forty U.S. states outlaw same-sex marriage and fewer than thirty states protect LGBT people from discrimination in employment and housing. Furthermore, at a time when virtually all of America’s NATO partners allow openly gay men and women to serve in the armed forces, the United States retains its flawed “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy.
These gaps and contradictions notwithstanding, it is undeniable that the transnational movement for LGBT equality has made remarkable strides over the last twenty years. It is easy to forget that it was not until 1991 that the World Health Organization stopped characterizing homosexuality as a mental illness and Amnesty International began including LGBT equality in its campaigns for international human rights. Last December, the United Nations General Assembly considered LGBT rights for the first time and sixty-six nations signed a document calling for the universal decriminalization of homosexuality and for an end to anti-LGBT discrimination and violence worldwide.
So, while the situation in Uganda (and many other places) is horrific in terms of LGBT equality, each day, in even the world’s most isolated corners, there are steps being made toward the eradication of centuries of homophobia and the recognition of human sexuality as an indispensable part of human rights.
[1] Jeffrey Gettleman, “Americans’ Role Seen in Uganda Anti-Gay Push,” New York Times, January 4, 2010.
[2] Godfrey Olukya, “Uganda Lawmaker Refuses to Withdraw Anti-Gay Bill,” Washington Post, January 8, 2010.
Tags: LGBT issues
Laura Belmonte
Laura Belmonte is Associate Professor of History and Director of American Studies at Oklahoma State University. Her work includes _Selling the American Way: U.S. Propaganda and the Cold War_ and the anthology _Speaking of America: Readings in U.S. History_