High profile battles over gay rights is something more commonly found in the West rather than in Africa. But the proposed changes to Uganda’s anti-gay laws being considered by Parliament has brought that country to the forefront of the global battle for LGBT rights.
Homosexuality is already criminalized in Uganda but the Anti-Homosexuality Bill currently on the table would drastically make things worse for gays in Uganda. Strongly supported and shaped by American Christian evangelicals, some of the more distressing changes to the current laws would make homosexuality punishable with life imprisonment (up from the current 14 year prison sentence), and would make repeat offenses punishable by death. The bill also proposes prison sentences for people who do not report the homosexual nature of others to the authorities. This means that family or friends who do not out someone who is gay to the police could wind up in jail themselves, thereby encouraging people to turn on each other in order to spare themselves. It also criminalizes the “intent to commit a homosexual act,” something that no one seems to quite understand, leaving many worried about how such a crime could be used against the gay community.
The bill was introduced last year and has been widely debated online since then. Now that it is before Parliament, the fight against the bill is gaining new momentum as more international attention is given to the situation. Today the campaign group Avaaz delivered a petition with 450,000 signatures to Parliament urging them to reject the bill. However most of the signatures on the petition are from outside Uganda, giving supporters of the bill a clear talking point on Western versus African values.
To be sure, there are some in Uganda who have raised concerns about the horrible ramifications that the bill could have in the country, and some LGBT rights groups have boldly spoken out against the bill. But so far their opinions have been drowned out by the inflammatory rantings of the anti-gay movement. With Ugandan president Museveni distancing himself from the bill in January, it is not clear whether the current bill will actually pass. However even if it doesn’t, it could set a new tone for LGBT rights in Africa, and not one that favors equality.