Countrify

450,000 Pleas to Kill Uganda's Kill the Gays Bill

by Michael A. Jones

 

 

What do you get when you combine 450,000 church folks, health care workers, teachers, human rights activists and HIV/AIDS advocates? An international campaign to kill efforts in Uganda to criminalize homosexuality in some fierce ways.

Led in part by Avaaz.org, and joining the petitions of thousands of other folks -- from Amnesty to Change.org -- these 450,000 signatures were delivered straight to every member of Uganda's parliament. Activists behind the petition, including Anglican priest Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha, secured a meeting with parliament speaker Edward Ssekandi to give further context to just how badly the international community wants to see Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill thrown in the trash.

Will it work?

Clearly the President of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, is hearing the message. He keeps saying that all foreign leaders want to talk about whenever they call him is homosexuality. That in itself is pretty amazing, considering that gay rights have been largely absent from diplomacy (indeed, it wasn't until 2008 that the first UN General Assembly statement ever on the rights of LGBT people was issued).

But is all the international pressure having the reverse effect on the bill? Some, like Queerty, argue that each time an e-mail (let alone 450,000) comes in, homophobic Ugandan politicians and religious leaders grow more resolute in their desire to kill queer people.

"Uganda's lawmakers have made clear that they don't care what the world says about how it governs, especially some silly fags with computers," Queerty writes. Abrasive, sure. But do they have a point?

Maybe in theory, but certainly not in practice. As Avaaz notes, most of the support behind the campaign that led to these 450,000 signatures came from within Africa.

"The strongest critics of this came from within Uganda and one of them said very clearly, 'There is homophobia in Uganda like in most of the world.  But we do not want our laws to be based on it.'  We started looking into it and we polled our members across the world and we got a 90 percent in favor for us to launch a campaign and 89 percent in Africa, saying that there was interest and concern about this bill and that we should take action," said Alice Jay, Avaaz's campaigns director.

It's important not to lose that sentiment. This isn't just western queers trying to stop the bill. This is a movement as big in Africa as it is in the U.S., with LGBT folks of all races, nationalities, religions and genders blasting this bill. That may not sway the homophobic parliamentarians and religious leaders behind Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill. But the threat of consequences for the country if this bill is passed sure as heck isn't lost on Uganda's President, and more rational political leaders.