Ugandan Parliamentary Bill Continues LGBTQ Crackdown

After a nearly unanimous vote on March 21, the Parliament of Uganda passed a set of sweeping anti-LGBTQ legislation, continuing a brazen crackdown on homosexuality in the East African nation. While homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, the new legislation is harsh and vaguely defined — members of the LGBTQ community and others accused of promoting homosexuality may receive life in prison or the death penalty under the law. As international outcry mounts, the bill awaits a signature or veto from Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, a longtime opponent of LGBTQ rights and recognition.

This bill represents the latest step in Uganda’s hostile agenda towards the LGBTQ community. In 2013, the Ugandan Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which broadened legal penalties for homosexuality in Uganda, and permitted the extradition of Ugandans abroad accused of violating the law. The act was based on the 2009 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, which Member of Parliament David Bahati introduced. Before the act, individuals convicted of homosexual acts could face prison sentences of up to 14 years. While the act faced an intense outcry from the international community and was annulled on procedural grounds a year after its passage, anti-LGBTQ sentiments and legislation attempts have continued within the Ugandan Parliament. 

This anti-LGBTQ sentiment is strongly linked to Uganda’s colonial history. Before British colonialism, homosexuality was socially acceptable among the Baganda, Uganda’s largest ethnic group. Additionally, the Lango people recognized a third gender, mudoko dako. Laws prohibiting homosexuality were first enacted by British colonial authorities in 1902, later enshrined in the Penal Code Act of 1950, and remained even after Uganda gained independence in 1962. 

In the late 19th century, Christian missionaries began to proselytize in Uganda under British colonial authority. While this arrival was relatively late compared to other African nations, Christianity rapidly took root, countering the existing spread of Islam among the Ugandan population. Today, around 85 percent of Ugandans practice Christianity — Roman Catholicism represents the largest denomination, but there are also significant populations of Anglicans, Pentecostals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Baptists. If the new legislation is signed into law, Uganda will become the only Christian-majority nation to punish homosexuality with the death penalty. 

In recent decades, Evangelical Christian organizations from the United States have played a key role in shaping Ugandan attitudes toward homosexuality. Their campaigns have linked homosexuality to pedophilia, accused LGBTQ organizations of “recruiting” children and vulnerable populations for sexual exploitation, and characterized homosexuality as a Western import aiming to destroy the traditional Ugandan family. 

Evangelical missionary Scott Lively has spearheaded these efforts. Lively has advocated for the criminalization of homosexuality globally, pushing for harsh anti-LGBTQ legislation in Russia, Latvia, and Uganda. Additionally, he authored the conspiratorial 2007 book “The Pink Swastika,” which asserts that gay people held prominent roles in the Nazi Party and exacerbated Nazi Germany’s militarism – a grave historical denial, especially considering that gay people were among those sent to concentration camps in the Holocaust. In 2009, Lively traveled to Kampala, Uganda, along with Don Schmeirer and Caleb Lee Brundige to host a conference on the dangers of the purported “LGBTQ agenda.” Thousands of Ugandan government officials, police officers, and teachers attended, and the meeting heavily influenced the 2009 draft of the Anti-Homosexuality Act. 

But despite the imperialist origins of this legislation, anti-LGBTQ sentiment has become incredibly widespread among Ugandans today. A 2013 poll from the Pew Research Center found that 96 percent of surveyed Ugandans believed that homosexuality should not be accepted by society. In a notable reversal of Western trends, older people displayed higher rates of LGBTQ acceptance than younger generations — seven percent of people over 50 believed that homosexuality should be accepted compared to a mere three percent of those 18 to 29. 

Efforts to advocate for the LGBTQ community have faced intense government opposition in Uganda. In 2004, activist Victor Mukasa founded Sexual Minorities Uganda, quickly becoming Uganda’s top LGBTQ human rights organization. However, Mukasa’s home was raided by police, prompting him to flee to South Africa, and Sexual Minorities Uganda was ordered to halt all operations in August 2022. Other independent events have been interrupted and brutalized by police, and Pride Uganda was canceled in 2017 after threats from the government. 

International human rights organizations and intergovernmental bodies immediately condemned this new legislation. According to the United Nations, including the death penalty in this bill constitutes an arbitrary killing. It is, therefore, a violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. UN Human Rights Council appointed experts urged President Museveni to “tread a new path towards respect of human rights and acceptance of difference, and reject the proposed law,” while the United States has threatened broad economic sanctions if the law is enacted.

Additionally, a group of large multinational companies, including Google and Microsoft, rallied against the bill, citing potential damage to the Ugandan economy. According to the coalition, Uganda’s neighbor Kenya loses 1.7 percent of its GDP annually due to business withdrawal based on anti-LGBTQ discrimination.

While President Museveni is known for his socially conservative leadership, he has expressed concern for the effects of social policy on the Ugandan economy in the past. The international condemnation of this bill may succeed in halting the legislation. The outcome of a singular bill will not reduce the pervasive anti-LGBTQ ideology in Ugandan society nor repair the widespread effects of Western imperialism that caused these ideas to fester. However, stopping the discriminatory legislation could be a step in the right direction for activists. Additionally, attitudes within the country may shift if local actors — rather than just international, especially Western, actors — can reestablish operations.