Stopping "Gay Genocide" in Uganda
One of Uganda's most high profile church leaders has issued a bold statement condemning efforts to pass legislation in the country that would institute the death penalty for some LGBT people, and throw many others in jail. Canon Gideon Byamugisha, a member of Uganda's Anglican Church, said that if Uganda moves forward and passes the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, it will amount of a "gay genocide" in the country.
"I believe that this bill [if passed into law] will be state-legislated genocide against a specific community of Ugandans," Byamugisha told The Guardian. That echoes almost verbatim what the international community has been saying about the bill.
The bill itself would create some of the harshest laws in the world related to homosexuality. It would call for the execution of LGBT people who are HIV-positive, and give lifetime prison sentences to other LGBT folks. It would also threaten to throw in jail straight people who do not report suspected LGBT people to government authorities, and set mandatory jail time for anyone who speaks favorably about LGBT rights. It's kind of like institutionalizing the Salem Witch Trials for the 21st century, on a global level.
Byamugisha becomes one of the first well-known religious or political figures in Uganda to speak out against the bill. He also happens to be one of the first ministers in Uganda, if not the entire continent of Africa, to publicly declare his HIV status, which he did in the 1990s as a means of trying to break the cycle of misinformation and prejudice against people living with HIV.
On this particular bill, Byamugisha is walking a line. He believes that homosexuality is inconsistent with his Christian ethics, but that supporting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is the wrong way to put that religious belief into practice. While there's certainly a theological debate worth having with Byamugisha on why he thinks LGBT people contradict the ethics of Christianity, this fact might actually give him a bit more legitimacy among Ugandans who are squeamish on homosexuality, but recognize that murdering and imprisoning LGBT people is a rather crazy policy.
"I hope that [my fellow religious leaders] will not translate my hesitation to support the bill as a moral surrender to behaviors and practices that we regard as 'unacceptable' and 'sinful' in our ethics and morality frameworks," Byamugisha said, according to the Guardian. "I hope that they will translate my hesitation as shying away from endorsing a bill that will institutionalize violence and death to a minority group simply because the majority do not like them."
Yeesh, you know this situation is royally effed up when you find yourself having to celebrate the "reasoned" comments of a person who thinks that homosexuality is sinful. But while the first part of Byamugisha's statement is flawed, the second part lines up exactly with what the international community is saying.
Speaking of the international community, Sweden made the pledge yesterday to suspend all international aid to Uganda if the anti-homosexuality bill gets passed. So now it's a game of geopolitical chicken: will Uganda dare the international community to react harshly toward the country by instituting a bill that runs contrary to human rights? And just how far are foreign countries like Sweden, the U.K., the U.S. and Canada willing to go in order to stop this barbaric bill from becoming law, and leading to what many -- including Byamugisha -- think will be a gay genocide?
Michael Jones
is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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