Opinion :: Guest Opinions
Uganda: Should death do us part by Cary Alan Johnson and Ryan Thoreson
Bay Windows contributorsWednesday Jan 27, 2010 After months of domestic and international pressure, Ugandan MP David Bahati finally signaled this week that he may work with the government to remove the death penalty from the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The public reversal was reportedly made after a closed-door meeting with President Yoweri Museveni’s Cabinet, who encouraged Bahati to tone down the legislation after intensive lobbying by a coalition of groups from civil society in Uganda and interventions by the governments of France, the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Sweden, and the European Union.
To say that the pressure has been intense would be an understatement. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill ranks among the most draconian and insidious pieces of anti-LGBT legislation in history, and groups inside Uganda have spent tremendous amounts of time and energy making sure the Bill does not pass. Their efforts have triggered an outpouring of statements against the Bill from unlikely allies like Senator Tom Coburn, Rick Warren of the Saddleback Church, Exodus International, and even the Vatican, which recently clarified that it "opposes all forms of violence and unjust discrimination against homosexual persons, including discriminatory penal legislation which undermines the inherent dignity of the human person."
The Bill has also provoked criticism from former president Festus Mogae of Botswana, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibé and Special Envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa Elizabeth Mataka, who all warned that it would damage Uganda’s acclaimed programming on HIV and AIDS. The backlash is taking its toll on foreign policy, with Sweden threatening to cut or withdraw aid and Senator Ron Wyden suggesting that Uganda might lose its preferential trade status if the Bill passes.
Bahati’s willingness to remove the death penalty suggests that these objections might not be falling on deaf ears. That marks a heartening turning point in the fight against the Bill, but it might be premature to call this a victory in and of itself. Even without the death penalty, the legislation has a number of troubling provisions that are receiving far less attention. The Bill prescribes up to three years in prison for anyone who does not report any friends, family members, or total strangers who they suspect of engaging in same-sex activity, and seven years of imprisonment for anyone who "aids, abets, counsels, or procures another to engage in acts of homosexuality." The Bill also prohibits the "promotion of homosexuality," including the production or distribution of pro-LGBT media, funding or belonging to a pro-LGBT organization, or even voicing support for LGBT rights, and would punish offenders with five to seven years in prison. Although same-sex activity is already punishable with life in prison in Uganda, the Bill would forbid any touching with the intention of homosexuality. It would allow the state to forcibly test LGBT people for HIV. And it claims to withdraw Uganda from any global treaty that recognizes the rights of LGBT people, setting an ominous precedent for the recognition of LGBT rights as human rights. All of this is justified as a bulwark against same-sex marriage and a prohibition against rape and pedophilia -- pointedly ignoring that all of these are already criminalized under existing Ugandan law.
With such strong opposition to the death penalty, it is unclear how often the punishment would actually be used against LGBT people in Uganda. Nevertheless, there are a number of provisions in the Bill that are likely to have immediate and chilling effects across the country. The ban on LGBT organizing would swiftly be used to shut down pro-LGBT groups, who would be unable to appeal the Bill if it passes. The legislation would codify the most dangerous stereotypes about LGBT people into law, legitimizing violence by families, communities, and private actors. Criminalizing intent to commit homosexuality and requiring people to inform on each other would almost certainly lend itself to blackmail, extortion, and false accusations. In countless ways, the Bill gives homophobes every tool they need to arrest and harass LGBT people for any reason whatsoever.
Thus far, it has been deeply heartening to see how strongly opponents of the Bill have spoken out against it. Nevertheless, it is troubling to think that this support may wane if the "Kill the Gays Bill" is merely used to blackmail, arrest, torture, and persecute LGBT people instead. With or without the death penalty, this Bill would be one of the most repressive and anti-democratic measures in recent memory, and would make a mockery of the international human rights regime. The true test of our political, religious, and civil society leaders is not whether they oppose the death penalty, but whether they are prepared to insist that LGBT people are entitled to the full range of human rights protections that all people are supposed to enjoy. Anything less than the dismissal of the Bill in its entirety undermines those protections and our commitment to the rights of all people, everywhere.
Cary Alan Johnson is the Executive Director of the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (IGLHRC). Ryan Thoreson is a research fellow at IGLHRC and co-author of Words of Hate, Climate of Fear: Human Rights Violations and Challenges to the LGBT Movement in Senegal. The opinions expressed here are the authors’ and not necessarily those of the organization.
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