Increase of Anti-LGBT Prosecution and Laws Throughout Africa: LGBT Rights Continue to Stumble Across Africa
In May 2023, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law one of the most harmful LGBT laws globally. It includes punishments for the knowing spread of HIV/AIDS, a 20-year prison sentence for the promotion of homosexual ideas, and most notably, the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” Although the law has received global condemnation, Uganda isn’t the first African country to enact anti-LGBT policies. With the exception of South Africa, the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, and Intersex Association (ILGA) has found that most African nations have anti-LGBT laws or policies and often do not provide fundamental rights for nonconforming individuals. Punishments range from public flogging to long prison sentences, and in extreme cases, death sentences. While many African nations allow for same-sex marriages and partnerships, South Africa is the only country on the continent to legalize same-sex marriages and fully penalize discrimination against the LGBT community. On an LGBT rights scale, Africa is steadily behind other continents, threatening LGBT individuals and access to global funding.
European colonization codified anti-sodomy policies into the legal systems of their territories, providing legal justifications for continued homophobia and transphobia sentiment. Now, with the spread of pro-LGBT norms by their former colonizers after decolonization, many African leaders have used anti-imperial sentiments to attack LGBT freedoms, presenting them as a “Western” ideal. President Museveni has called international pressure to veto the law “imperialist.” In support of Museveni, many influential leaders in neighboring nations have applauded the law’s passage, such as Kenyan Parliament member, George Kaluma, who tweeted that Kenya would follow in the “endeavor to save humanity” and called homosexuality a “perversion.”
In recent decades, American evangelical groups have spent millions of dollars spreading anti-LGBT policies. Taking advantage of the large Christian population throughout Africa, which make up around 27% of the total global Christian population as reported in 2021, these organizations have pushed “tradition” and held talks on “the dangers of homosexuality.”
Within Uganda, the large Protestant population is heavily ingrained in its politics as well. Since coming to power in 1986, President Museveni has repeatedly emphasized his Christian beliefs, and members of parliament have previously invited international religious groups to speak about topics relating to homosexuality. Anglican leaders of churches in a handful of countries, including Uganda, recently rejected the Archbishop of Canterbury as the head of the global church over his decision to permit the blessing of same-sex marriages. The Inter Religious Council of Uganda, an organization representing a range of religions, called upon parliament members to pass anti-LGBT legislation, with a Ugandan Archbishop claiming that “well-funded gay organizations” were luring in Ugandan children.
Rebranded as pro-family legislation, the president and his wife have been extremely repressive to LGBT communities for years. Janet K. Museveni, the First Lady of Uganda, was presented with the “Family Values Award” by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 2016, which highlighted her “continued support of building strong families” within the country. The Church mentioned their unwavering support to the First Lady and her “consistent message” against same-sex marriage. President Museveni, a member of the Anglican Church of Uganda, signed a total ban on same-sex marriages in 2005.
With governmental support, these Evangelical groups have swept in, hoping to further influence and increase legislation in the region. In 2009, American Evangelical preachers argued in Kampala that Westerners were looking to “spread homosexuality by corrupting and recruiting children,” likely influencing the development of the infamous “Kill the Gays” law enacted by Uganda in 2014. After global backlash and the blockage of U.S.-backed aid, the law was later repealed.
Nevertheless, Uganda’s legal discrimination against its LGBT population has continued despite deep international pressure. The newly adopted Anti-Homosexuality Act, for example, classifies “aggravated homosexuality” as a person committing the same-sexual action to someone with a mental or physical disability, of advanced age or 75 years and above, or if the act itself causes the receiving individual to contract a terminal illness, likely invoking fears of HIV. Three months after its enactment, a 20-year-old man has already been charged with the death penalty for this clause for relations with a 45-year-old man. With increased oppression throughout the country, LGBT people have begun to flee due to threats of attacks from strangers and family members.
On a global scale, President Museveni’s signing received condemnation from states and intergovernmental institutions and highlighted the impact of their political choices. The World Bank pulled loans from Uganda, stating that the law “fundamentally contradicts the organization's values,” and that further loans would not be provided until these policies have been reversed. Ugandan leaders decried the decision, arguing that other countries with similar laws had not lost access to financial aid. U.S. President Joe Biden released a statement on how governmental personnel, tourists, the business community, and other aspects of U.S.-Uganda relations could be negatively impacted, including PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief), which could threaten aid for slowing and ending the HIV/AIDS crisis within the country. Already, a treatment clinic in Kampala has emptied of patients, while medicine piles up due to the fear of criminalization.
However, other countries on the continent have worked to expand rights and protections for the LGBT community. Botswana and Gabon have decriminalized same-sex relationships in recent years, while the Seychelles has implemented employment protections for identifying people. South Africa is well known as one of the continent’s oldest pro-LGBT countries, with Cape Town often being called Africa’s gay capital, and has further prohibited discrimination based on sexual orientation through legislation adopted in 1998. Yet despite the growth in legal protections, hate crimes, threats, physical violence, and sexual abuse are still heavily prevalent throughout South Africa.
With the passing of recent laws, many African nations see the outcry from the West as another form of colonial subjugation. These anti-LGBT beliefs are so heavily enmeshed with colonialism and deep religious belief that it is hard to detangle them from the politicians writing these policies and the very population they impact. Further religious aid in the form of monetary donations and structured events has added fuel to the growing flame, providing intercontinental support for continued legislation. The impact of these policies will likely stretch farther than just societal discrimination and continued violence, and instead develop into a public health emergency as well. While on a global scale, LGBT rights are continuing to expand, African nations, often inspired by neighboring states, continue to strengthen and renew colonial-era laws, heavily threatening swaths of their population with their livelihoods in more ways than one.