Uganda's anti-gay bill is on hold following threats to cut aid. It's a
controversial strategy, but it's working
Paul Canning
Wednesday April 20 2011
guardian.co.uk
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2011/apr/20/anti-gay-laws-africa-uganda-ssempa
When the Ugandan government announced that the anti-homosexuality bill
was on hold [http://www.boxturtlebulletin.com/2011/03/25/31556"
title="Box Turtle Bulletin: TV Report: Uganda to Shelve Kill-The-Gays
Bill], those pushing it immediately blamed international pressure on
President Yoweri Museveni. Pastor Martin Ssempa [http://
www.voanews.com/english/news/africa/Religious-Groups-Demand-Debate-on-Uganda-Anti-Homosexuality-Bill-119334459.html"
title="VOA News: Religious Groups Demand Debate on Uganda Anti-
Homosexuality Bill] said that the bill was "being deliberately killed
largely by the undemocratic threats of western nations".
He has a point. A campaign delivered half a million signatures to
Museveni [http://www.sgn.org/sgnnews38_10/page3.cfm" title="SGN: Half-
million sign petition against Ugandan anti-Gay bill], various
governments lobbied, the Germans said they'd cut aid [http://
www.newser.com/article/d9mfc3580/350-million-aid-for-malawi-goes-through-after-us-gets-assurances-on-human-rights.html"
title="Newser: $350 million aid for Malawi goes through after US gets
assurances on human rights ], and now the US Congress has amended
financial legislation [http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/
688334/1128350/-/c3vhijz/-/" title="Daily Monitor: US legislators push
for aid cut to Uganda over gays bill] (with bipartisan support) that
would cut aid to countries deemed to be persecuting gay people.
Introducing the legislation, congressman Barney Frank highlighted
Uganda and noted that "the US has a fairly influential voice in the
development area".
Timothy Geithner, the US treasury secretary, has now said in a letter
[http://www.washingtonblade.com/content/files/2011/04/04.08.11-
Geithner-Letter-to-Frank.pdf" title="letter (pdf)] to Frank that his
Treasury department "will continue to instruct the US executive
directors at each of the MDBs [multilateral development banks] to seek
to channel MDB resources away from those countries whose governments
engage in a pattern of gross violations of human rights".
Pressure is also mounting from Europe. The European parliament passed
a resolution [http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?
type=MOTION&reference=P7-RC-2010-0693&language=EN"
title="European parliament: JOINT MOTION FOR A RESOLUTION] in
December "reminding" Africa that "the EU is responsible for more than
half of development aid and remains Africa's most important trading
partner" and that "in all actions conducted under the terms of various
partnerships" that sexual orientation is a protected category of non-
discrimination.
How financial pressure will play out remains to be seen. This month
massive US funding [http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/apr/08/350-
million-in-us-aid-for-malawi-goes-through/" title="Signon News: $350
million in US aid for Malawi goes through] for improving Malawi's
power supply network went through despite that country criminalising
lesbians [http://www.queerlife.co.za/test/news/february2011/6187-
malawi-criminalise-lesbians.html" title="Queer Life: Malawi
Criminalise Lesbians].
Someone blinked regarding Malawi but there is undoubtedly more
pressure on governments who repress gay people than ever before.
Germany didn't blink and did cut Malawi aid [http://
www.africareview.com/News/Germany%20cuts%20aid%20to%20Malawi%20over%20homosexuality%20law/-/979180/1101482/-/jkg3ct/-/index.html"
title="Africa Review: Germany cuts aid to Malawi over homosexuality
law].
Like Uganda, moves in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to
criminalise gay people have also stalled ? again diplomats have raised
their concerns. But now there's a backlash.
In Uganda, Ssempa presented a two-million-signature petition [http://
madikazemi.blogspot.com/2011/04/huge-anti-gay-campaign-unfolding-
in.html" title="LBGT Asylum News: Huge anti-gay campaign unfolding in
Uganda] to parliament on 7 April demanding that the anti-gay bill be
passed (and damn the consequences). In Cameroon there is a huge fuss
over European Union funding for a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and
transgender (LGBT) advocacy group.
Cameroon's foreign minister, Henri Eyebe Ayissi [http://
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henri_Eyebe_Ayissi" title="Wikipedia], summoned
the head of the EU delegation to protest against their support [http://
www.cameroon-tribune.cm/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=63074:financement-des-associations-homosexuelles-le-gouvernement-desapprouve-lunion-europeenne&catid=1:politique&Itemid=3"
title="Cameroon Tribune: Le cameroun dsapprouve le financement des
associations homosexuelles ] for people who "violate the laws of
Cameroon".
Like others in Africa, Cameroonian activists have received death
threats, but this hasn't led those Africans I speak to wanting
international pressure to stop ? on the contrary.
The criminalisation of homosexuality in countries such as Cameroon is
also increasingly questioned by bodies such as the Global Fund to
Fight Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
The_Global_Fund_to_Fight_AIDS%2C_Tuberculosis_and_Malaria"
title="Wikipedia]. Funding for HIV/Aids prevention which involves LGBT
people, and which governments are being required to tolerate, has led
to LGBT community development in many countries (and not just in
Africa).
Hillary Clinton has said [http://www.towleroad.com/2010/06/clinton-
lgbt.html" title="Towleroad: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Delivers Remarks at LGBT State Department Pride Month Event ] that the
US is "elevating our human rights dialogues with other governments and
conducting public diplomacy to protect the rights of [LGBT people]."
Her state department has quietly funded and brought activists to the
US so they can hone their skills, and moved to support LGBT refugees
[http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/2010/10/un-discussing-lgbt-refugees-
today-more.html" title="LGBT Asylum News] ? supporting major
developments [http://www.unhcr.org.uk/home.html" title="UNHCR] at the
Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as well as funding
inclusive programs.
President Obama has backed this up. His comments against Uganda's anti-
gay bill made headlines across Africa [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/
world/africa/8498836.stm" title="BBC: Obama condemns Uganda anti-gay
bill as 'odious' ].
The annual state department human rights reports [http://www.state.gov/
g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/" title="US department of state: 2010 country
reports on human rights practices] just released all now cover LGBT
rights but they vary widely. Many note no "official reports" of
arrests, for example, or refer to "societal discrimination", which
avoids criticising the government. Perhaps to the surprise of many
this does not include Iraq, where the government is effectively
slammed. (Pointedly the Foreign Office's copycat human rights report
ignores LGBT in its Iraq coverage.)
Leaders such as Museveni are obviously mindful of both international
and local concerns. So the Zimbabwean prime minister Morgan Tsvangirai
spent last year telling local gay people one thing and the country's
media another. Raila Odinga, his counterpart in Kenya, made a bizarre
threat to "arrest all gays" at a rally in December.
This, according to Kenyan activists, followed a meeting with European
ambassadors, but they point out that the US ambassador in Nairobi
didn't join in criticising Odinga.
Explaining the disparities, Mark Bromley of the Council for Global
Equality says the state department reports are "more of a kabuki dance
than a liberation march" and many diplomats have not "done enough
homework" but adds that: "If an embassy turns a cold shoulder to an
LGBT human rights activist, or refuses to meet with that activist,
then please let us know. We consider it part of our job to help
facilitate those connections, and to scream to senior-level officials
in Washington if an embassy is not open to such contacts."
The US and others are often accused of hypocrisy on human rights but
this year the US has submitted to the UN's universal periodic review
[http://www.ohchr.org/en/hrbodies/upr/pages/uprmain.aspx"
title="Universal Periodic Review] process. Of the 228 recommendations
received by the US during the review, three relate to LGBT rights and
they were accepted.
And increased international attention to LGBT rights is also showing
up cracks in the anti forces.
Last November, a group of Islamic and African countries struck out
"sexual orientation" from a UN resolution on extrajudicial ? non-
state ? killings. The US announced they would try to get the vote
reversed and in December it was [http://madikazemi.blogspot.com/
2011/01/historic-un-vote-on-gay-killings-sparks.html" title="LGBT
Asylum News: Historic UN vote on 'gay killings' sparks international
reaction]. By a landslide. Over a quarter of member states positively
changed their votes ? including a third of Africa ? and many made
clear it was domestic, not US, pressure which changed their minds. The
Rwandan delegate, Olivier Nduhungirehe, reacting to claims that
"sexual orientation" isn't defined, said: "Believe me, sir, that a
human group doesn't need to be legally defined to be the victim of
execution or massacre, since those who target their members have
previously defined them. Rwanda has experienced this 16 years ago
indeed, and for this reason our delegation will vote for the
amendment, and calls on other delegations to do likewise."
Support for LGBT rights internationally from western countries should
be welcomed. Critics and headshakers (such as the New York Times
editor, Bill Keller, who just warned of America's "missionary
impulse" [http://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/17/magazine/mag-17Lede-
t.html" title="NY Times: The Return of America's Missionary
Impulse">America's "missionary impulse]) should remember that another
source of international pressure (and funding) exists. Having lost at
home, American evangelicals have transferred their culture war against
gay people to countries such as Uganda.
Their propaganda lines ? LGBT people are a threat to children,
homosexuality can be "unlearned", homosexuality is "un-African", any
"concession" means "special rights" ? can be heard repeated around the
world by pastors such as Martin Ssempa and also, in Muslim areas, by
imams.
guardian.co.uk Copyright (c) Guardian News and Media Limited. 2011
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