Homophobia in Uganda
Tyneside and Northumberland Mind are an anti-racist, anti-prejudice, and equity-led charity. We are here to support all humans, no matter who you are, where you’re from, or how you identify. We are allies to marginalised and minoritised people and are constantly working to actively include people to influence our work.
Educating ourselves on other people’s lives and experiences is fundamental to being an ally. If we believe the world is unjust and want to make it fairer, then we must start by learning where injustices lie. In that spirit, we present you with an article written by one of our volunteers Kato. Kato is seeking asylum here in the UK, because his work has attracted condemnation and violence in his home country of Uganda. Kato reflects on some of the differences and similarities between the UK and Uganda and educates us on some pressing human rights issues. This article is written from Kato’s perspective as a Human Rights Lawyer. As an organisation we feel it’s important to share stories such as Kato’s to raise our collective awareness while empowering people to stand up for what is right.
At the bottom of the article, we’ve included quotes from the Tyneside and Northumberland Mind team about our ongoing work centring the voices and experiences of people who are excluded.
Trigger Warning: This article contains mentions of homophobia, discrimination, and violence against LGBTQ+ people. If you are personally affected by any of the topics raised in this piece and would like some support, please contact us via our website or our phone lines: 0191 477 4545 | 0330 174 3174. We are here for you.
Homophobia in Uganda
By Kato Mukasa.
There are many good things about Africa and it is generally known that the people in Africa are very accommodating and friendly, but this perception immediately changes when it comes to homosexuals. Homosexuals are witch-hunted, hated and discriminated in many countries in Africa.
Legally there are countries in Africa where homosexuality has been decriminalised, but this has only reduced on the escalating levels of homophobia but gives no assurance to homosexuals to live freely and to openly display their affection. Homosexuality is legal in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo Brazzaville, Cote D’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Guinea-Bissau, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda and South Africa.
In many of the mentioned countries, the laws against homosexuality may be relaxed but this doesn’t imply that they share the same rights as heterosexuals enjoy. Homosexuals still have no right to marry as the legal system provides no opportunity to allow people of the same sex.
Majority of countries in Africa have practices and laws that are openly hostile to homosexuals. Uganda is best known for their concentrated focus on homosexuals. From the Speaker of Parliament to the illiterate peasants in the country, the talk of the day is focused on homosexuality and how it is being promoted within schools with an intention of destroying the core values of our society.
On the 24th day of February 2023, Uganda Muslim Supreme Council gathered thousands of Muslims in a demonstration they called: ‘A peaceful Demonstration against Homosexuality in our Community’.
The Muslim Council called upon all district Khadis, Sheiks and Imams directing them to use every opportunity they get on radios, televisions, Khutubas (religious sermons) and press statements to address the issue of homosexuality.
This is not the first time to see thousands of people marching in demonstration against homosexuals in the country. The Christian leadership, politicians and opinion leaders have always indicated that the main problem of our society is the evil perpetuated by homosexuals and to them homosexuality is a perversion promoted by Europe to destroy what they call ‘good African values’.
Populist politicians are known for regularly pushing bills intended to prohibit homosexuality and its alleged promotion. On 22 February 2023, George Peter Kaluma, MP of Homa Bay Town Constituency and Assistant Speaker of Kenya’s Parliament wrote to Parliament detailing his intention to bring a legislation to criminalise and punish homosexuality and other unnatural sexual acts and to further criminalise the promotion of such acts in Kenya.
The narration promoted by homophobes is that gay people are a creation of Western values intended to destroy African values. The common talk is that homosexual organisations internationally are sponsoring the underground homosexual organisations in Uganda to teach children how to be homosexuals. They have said that homosexuals are recruiting young people into homosexuality with the intention of creating more gay people so as to destroy the family structure on which a country is built.
To many people in Africa, homosexuality is an abnormality and a choice made by a people who choose to be homosexuals rather than a sexuality that is a natural part of being human. Knowledge about sexuality is limited to heterosexuality thus many people are yet to come to the understanding that a person can naturally be a lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer. In short many people in Africa think that sex can only be done between people of the opposite sex and that it is the only natural way to love. Sexual intercourse is meant for procreation and it must only be between a man and a woman. Therefore, a mere thought of a man having sex with another man is immoral, sinful, dirty and repulsive and must be condemned by all ‘right thinking’ members of society.
Religious leaders have used their so-called holy books to promote homophobia and justified violence against homosexuals. Homosexuality is associated with paedophilia, rape and defilement. Whereas our legal system punishes all crimes committed against children, homophobes have always promoted the warped idea that homosexuals are responsible for sexual abuse against children regardless of the statistics that clearly indicate that majority of children molesters are heterosexuals.
On 1 February 2023, Fabrice Brad Rulinda the Mayor of Entebbe Municipal Council in Uganda, addressed the press detailing the reasons why the Council directed the removing of a structure that had been painted in rainbow colours and placed in the children’s park. The park had been beautified by the Lion’s Club of Entebbe through their patriotic efforts to give back to the community through creating a beautiful play area for the children.
The problem arose when homophobes started saying that the rainbow colours are for homosexuals and it was wrong for the Lion’s Club to paint any structure in rainbow colours. Sadly, the rainbow painting represented the promotion of homosexuality among the children and the politicians incited the public to reject a beautiful structure painted in rainbow colours!
This is the problem that affects much of Africa. Our people often forget to focus on the big picture when they want to justify hate against homosexuals. A rainbow is a beautiful arch of colours that signifies joy, life, unity, calmness and peace and when we see the rainbow towering over us we know the beauty of science, nature and life. Children need to be taught about the significance of the rainbow rather than explaining it through homophobic lenses.
On 17 February 2023, the Church of Uganda protested against the act of blessing homosexual marriages by the Anglican Church of England. The Church of Uganda indicated their resolve to cut ties with the Church of England over homosexuality support.
The double standards and unjustified hate against homosexuals is so much telling as we often see hypocritical religious leaders and politicians focusing all their intention on homosexuals despite the increasing levels of corruption and human rights violations in much of Africa.
There is no evidence that homosexuality is taught or forced on people as homophobes allege. Homosexuality just like heterosexuality is supposed to be consensual and between adults. Child molestation and defilement is done across the human sexuality spectrum and it is logically inept to condemn sexual abuse to only homosexuals.
The responsibility for all adults is to protect children from sex perverts regardless of their sexuality. Parents have the responsibility to arm their children with the knowledge on sexuality and empower them to be in the right position to make the right decision when it comes to sex.
People need to be educated about homosexuality and be helped to know that homosexuals are as human and normal as the self-righteous heterosexuals. Many people think that homosexuals have no right to a fair trial, to education, to access health care and to have their freedom to associate and speak out. Their crime is not to love the same way as heterosexuals do.
Tagging criminality to homosexuals is wrong as we are all capable of committing crimes regardless of our sexuality. If a homosexual became a paedophile, it is the crime we must condemn and not the sexuality of the offender because a crime committed by a homosexual should legally carry the same weight with that done by a heterosexual.
Being gay is not Africa’s problem just like being straight has never been considered a problem. Our people’s painful ignorance and hypocrisy is our problem. The real problem in Africa is about poor leadership that breeds corruption and rampant human rights violations that have left many countries engulfed in war, debt, state inspired violence, sectarianism, nepotism and tribalism that makes progress seem impossible.
The real problem lies with our people missing the big picture. It is in our people’s hypocrisy looking for the soft targets to blame and finding homosexuals as the perfect scapegoat to hide their inadequacies. Homosexuals are not our problem but rather the populist politicians and religious leaders who have failed to make our countries better.
Kato Mukasa is a Human Rights Lawyer and Volunteer at Tyneside and Northumberland Mind
You can read more about Kato’s experiences in his piece titled ‘When people perish for lack of knowledge and blind hate’. Read it now at https://www.tynesidemind.org.uk/selfcare-and-wellbeing/stories/when-people-perish-for-lack-of-knowledge-and-blind-hate/
“In 2022 Tyneside and Northumberland Mind made a commitment to become a fully anti-racist, equitable and inclusive organisation. Part of this commitment was to appoint our very first dedicated Diversity, Inclusion and Equity Manager (DE&I Manager). The remit of the role is to help ensure that equity and inclusion sits at the heart of all we do from our strategic plans to our grass roots services. It also ensures that we drive long-term culture change in our organisation, create reach into communities who are underrepresented and don’t have the privilege or access mental health services and to learn alongside our local system to make substantive and significant changes in our combined approach.” Alex Wilson, CEO
“Part of our centring approach is to engage with specialist partners to collaborate on providing accessible mental health and wellbeing support where and when it’s needed. We listen with empathy, foster learning as a culture, and encourage community participation to develop our work long term, especially in service to those who are marginalised, minoritised, and experiencing health inequalities.” Carly Lovedawn, DE&I Manager
“We’ve been working in partnership with Rainbow Home and St Vincent de Paul, providing emotional and mental health support to those seeking sanctuary in the UK. This work is incredibly humbling, and we constantly learn from it. The rights that some of us have because we are fortunate to live in countries with more progressive laws must never be taken for granted. Kato’s words and those of the sanctuary seeking community remind me of that each day. It is these interactions and experiences that make us even more determined to develop our services to support those from racialised and marginalised communities.” Lisa MacDonald, Head of Wellbeing and Resilience
We work with organisations to assist refugees and people seeking asylum. If you’d like to know more about our work, please get in touch via our contact page and reference ‘the wellbeing team’. Alternatively, you can contact Rainbow Home (LGBT+) here: https://rainbowhome.org.uk/ and Saint Vincent De Paul here: https://www.svp.org.uk/st-vincents-newcastle
If you need help with more practical matters, you can contact the West End Refugee Service for information, advice here: https://www.wers.org.uk/information-for-asylum-seekers-and-refugees
