Raising the Question

At the beginning of last week a friend emailed me an article from the Washington Post with the title “'Hang them': Uganda paper publishes photos of gays.” Currently, acts of homosexuality are illegal in Uganda and punishable by up to 14 years in prison. This past year, a bill was raised in the Ugandan parliament that would increase the penalty to life in prison. It also proposes the death penalty for a new crime of "aggravated homosexuality,” which is when one of the participants is a minor, HIV-positive, disabled or a "serial offender.” Because of international outcry against the bill, and concern by the Ugandan government that their Western donors would withhold funds, the bill has been tabled for a formal debate at a later time. While the politicians have held off slightly from their crusade, others in the community have taken up the cause in force, such as publicly identifying Ugandan gays and physically terrorizing them (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-11608241).

Uganda’s wide spread discrimination of gays has always been a particular challenge for me to overcome in choosing to work here. The human rights fellowship that I received in 2007 from the University of Minnesota Law School to do my first work in the country was funded by a gay couple in Minneapolis dedicated to promoting the fulfillment of rights around the world. It was strange to me that the same people who made it possible for me to start a men’s health education group in rural Eastern Uganda (which is still doing amazing work to this day) would never be welcomed by the people benefiting from their generosity. This fact bothered me so much that during my first trip, I quietly raised the issue with one of the regional office leaders for the Uganda Human Rights Commission while we were having dinner at a restaurant. As if we were trading State secrets, he responded in a whisper that human rights are based on law and the constitution says it illegal, therefore “they should be run out of the country.” After I tried making the case that human rights should at least protect everyone from harm, he then replied that homosexuality makes the family and society unstable, and that while Uganda is so unstable, it can’t accept it.

Reading about the recent attacks on Ugandan gays lead to another effervescence to say something. The topic had become a particular issue of conversation amongst the MUYU team. Each week the team has a class to learn about cultural practices in Uganda lead by a physician-pastor, who has been applauded for his ability to integrate science and spirituality. During one of these sessions last week, I asked him if he could translate for us the basis of the anti-homosexuality laws in Uganda since everyone on the MUYU team has friends who are gay and even now live in states where gay marriage is legal (except California). He assured us that he was never in support of the death penalty for gays, but explained that homosexuality is against their culture and therefor should not be supported. He reasoned that if homosexuality were permitted by law then young children would be recruited to becoming gay--a common argument not only heard in Uganda, but also the United States. When someone from our team raised the issue that gays should at least be protected from harm by human rights, the physician-pastor responded that he has never personally harmed anyone and then stated that gays always hold public rallies for their rights but you never see heterosexuals doing it. He then exclaimed, “what about my rights?” Somehow the dialogue of culture and rights has backfired in Uganda into a logic for intolerance. During my second stay in Uganda, I examined how legal and medical professionals thought human rights might help gays in Uganda encounter less discrimination when accessing healthcare. Surprisingly, it was common for interviewees to turn my question on me and ask “when are gays going to stop oppressing my rights?” The right being violated, many explained, was the right not to witness their “immoral” behavior.

After our class session had ended, one of my classmates asked me, “how do you think the doctor feels about the African-American rallies in the 1960s? Does he think they should have stopped complaining about their rights?” Just like the civil rights movement in the US, gays in Uganda face a serious threat of discrimination that is both state and culturally sanctioned. And though I can write lots about the sad state of things for this minority group here, equally worthy of note are the wonderful individuals that I’ve met who resist the intolerance. Though few in number, they make it easy to come back.