American dreams, African nightmares
This week I planned to write about Washington DC’s decision to recognise out-of-state gay marriages and Vermont becoming the fourth US state to legalise same-sex marriage -鈥� and the first to do so by a state legislature vote.
But for every part of the world where gay equality is galloping forward it seems somewhere else it’s galloping back -鈥� too often funded by the same forces of fundamentalism who’ve lost the battle here.
A case in point is Uganda, where US-funded fundamentalist churches and ex-gay groups have found fruitful soil in a country where 33 percent of people cannot read and fewer than 30 percent of voters have finished primary school.
Earlier this year Scott Lively (author of The Pink Swastika that claims gay men ran the Nazi Party and caused the Holocaust), Don Schmierer (a board member of Exodus International), and another US ex-gay promoter held a conference in Kampala where it was claimed there was an international conspiracy to turn Africans gay -鈥� the only solution being the mass arrest of Ugandan homosexuals and their subjugation through ex-gay therapies.
Then last month, the group that ran the conference held a press conference where they paraded a cured former gay activist with longstanding money troubles. He claimed that over $1000 a day was being spent on a campaign to impose homosexuality on Ugandans and that he’d been trained and paid to recruit schoolchildren into being gay.
Despite a veneer of democracy, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been in power 23 years, and with corruption and crime rife in the country, the government has found homophobia to be an increasingly powerful tool of distraction. Leaping on these allegations, government ministers are now claiming the United Nations is behind the spread of homosexuality in the country.
Planned legislation will strengthen Ugandan sodomy laws, which have been difficult to enforce despite a penalty of life imprisonment, by making simply being a GLBT person a crime. With this the government will criminalise every gay rights group in the country and any gay person who dares to speak against the lies peddled in the country’s news media.
It’s hard to know how to respond when any foreign help is dismissed as conspiracy.
But in this time of crisis, when governments are looking to save money, could there be a better way than suspending aid to Museveni’s regime?
Or perhaps that’s exactly what we would do.
I accept criticism where it’s due. Gays in the Netherlands have every right to criticise Australia’s ban on same-sex marriage. If the government of Uganda started to lecture Australians on gay rights (or racism or sexism for that matter), the gay community here may not take it lying down.
Yup David, and I’m sure if African nations presumed to lecture us on human rights reforms, you’d be suggesting they look to their own backyards.
I would add that when the Australian Government stalls on same-sex law reform or commits a human rights violation we rightly tend to blame the Australian Government – not the Americans or anyone else. I think African regimes are also primarily responsible for what goes on inside the borders of their countries and not “imperialists”.
What a strange world you live in, David, where the travesties committed by the West against the ‘Third World’ can be excused by the real or imagined number of deaths they have caused to each other. I confess I don’t follow the logic that the bombing, burning and pillaging of dozens of Third World countries by the US is vindicated by those countries’ own internal conflicts, or that any of that carnage gives us the moral high ground to be lecturing them on ‘human rights.’
Shayne, Iraqi deaths since 2003 would still include deaths inflicted by Muslims against Muslims – suicide bombers, Ba’athist loyalists and Al-Qaeda operatives (as well as those inflicted by US and allied troops) against ordinary Iraqis. And on the subject of Iraq, Saddam Hussein also started the Iran-Iraq War which accounts for well over a million casualties on boths sides (Rajaee, Farhang. The Iran-鈥淚raq War: The Politics of Aggression). Saddam also wreaked havoc against Kuwait in 1990 and slaughtered minority Kurd and Shia groups inside Iraq.
The governments of Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt not only have a history of repressing their own Muslim populations but are also violently anti-gay. And it maybe true that US meddling in the Third World (and interference by the Soviet Union and China) over the years has led to anti-democratic outcomes, it should not distract us from who is ultimately responsible for atrocities in the Third World.
LOL, it was a TYPO, Andrew “I don’t expect you’ll like that one either” Potts, like “refugies”.
Btw., its not a matter of ‘liking’ you or what you write, that would be a jejune representation of a consideration about which I maintain equanimity. But, to paraphrase someone, opinions are like arseholes everyone has one (and most are just as stinky.) It is the biased interpretation of half facts, (which may well suit the didactic proselytising of an Anthony Venn-Brown) that I find problematic. Its typical of most Oz news media, which leads the less well-informed to enjoin that simplistic polarisation of this complex and troubled world and is antithetical to any normative analysis that might make this world a better place. Still, its been fun, I’m sure.
It’s not “the Uganda” Shayne, just Uganda- maybe you’re thinking of The Gambia?
Did you know, Andrew, that since 1991, over 2000 foreign enterprises of various sizes have committed in excess of US$2.5 billion into the Uganda? The UK exported 50m pounds worth of goods to Uganda last year. Good luck with the sanctions idea, but I’d aver that asylum might be a better bet.
Shayne, the situation in Uganda today and Iraq under Saddam couldn’t be more different.
Iraq was a military dictatorship with vast oil reserves which kept the Baathist elite rich and fat on blackmarket goods, while Uganda is a Commonweath country and by and large democratic.
The Iraqi people could take no actions to change their government no matter how long the sanctions went on and for that reason they were cruel and meaningless. The Ugandan people can.
However I’d only recommend sanctions in the case of a bloody crackdown on gay Ugandans, and while the evidence seems to point to a spike in the number of arrests, it’s yet to come to that.
In the meantime the threat of aid suspension and diplomatic pressure would work just fine.
It’s already coming from the UK and EU but if countries like the US and Australia started making their concerns known as well the message to Ugandans would be a lot stronger.
David Skidmore said, “the perpetrators of deaths and torture inflicted on Muslims in the Middle East are usually other Muslims..” In 2007, an independent polling agency located in London, ORB (Opinion Research Business), published estimates of the Iraqi deaths since the US-led invasion of in 2003. It found that there were 1,033,000 violent deaths as a result of the conflict. Other agencies were more moderate. The Lancet calculated a range of 392,979 to 942,636 deaths. You can probably see that your claim is a bit silly.
You might also consider that many tyrants, torturers and other corrupt puppet-presidents and dictators have been aided, supported, and rewarded handsomely for their loyalty to US interests. They rise to power through bloody ClA-backed coups. Their troops receive training or advice from the CIA and other agencies. US military aid and weapons sales often strengthen their armies and guarantee their hold on power. Unwavering “anti-communism” and a willingness to provide unhampered access for American business interests to exploit their countries’ natural resources and cheap labor are the excuses for their repression, and the primary reason the US government supports them. Rarely are they called to account for their crimes. And rarely still, is the US government held responsible for supporting and protecting some of the worst human rights violators in the world.
Idi Amin, for example, was a British soldier. He rose to power because of his efficient management of concentration camps in Kenya during the Mau Mau rebellion in the 1950’s. Amin was picked by the British to replace the elected Ugandan government in a 1971 coup. He brutalized his people with British and US military aid and with Israeli and CIA training of his troops.
Your polarised world view of west = good and east = bad does not accord with reality.
Andrew M. Potts said, “Don’t GLBT Africans have a birthright as citizens of their countries and isn’t that being stolen from them when they are forced to flee? This is a particular issue in Uganda and other parts of Africa where gays have literally been told to get out en masse or face the consequences.” In 1972, Amin gave the Indian community (around 40,000) 90 days to leave the country. When they refused, Amin’s forces went on a widespread campaign of genocide, killing most of them. I don’t believe the oppressed in these countries share our precious notions and luxuries of ‘birthright’ etc.; they just want to get the fuck out of there. Which is why I believe our, and other consulates in this country should be effecting asylum and escape for them. Of course the problem with glbqti is how do you prove it, but that’s a whole other discussion.
I also think you need to be careful about “aid suspension and targeted sanctions.” The U.N. 7 year trade blockade on Iraq, was killing 400 a day from pre-famine conditions and disease.
John Pilger once wrote that there were two superpowers in the world – the U.S. and World Opinion. It is that latter, and embargos in seemingly inoffensive areas, like sporting events, that helped to end apartheid. Of course the west should be applying the same embargos on Uganda and other tyrannies (including Israel, with a 300-page archive of their war crimes by Amnesty and the Red Cross submitted to the UN….and vetoed by the US.) But as I have already explained above, there is no interest in doing so.
How ironic that the banner above this column advertises “International Day Against Homophobia” on May 17th. Presumably Ugandans and the others mentioned know about this…?
Thanks Andrew for alerting us to Exodus involvement in Africa. I try to keep abreast of things but it slipped under the radar.
i’m speaking at a conference of Christian workers next week on homosexuality and the church…….where I highlight the misinformation, stereotyping and scaremongering of some sectors of the church, along with the conspiracy theories……thanks to you I now have another supposed conspiracy to add to my list.
Despite what other opinions maybe I think you do a good job and enjoy reading your column when I can.
thanks
“the most productive resolution to the problem would be to lobby our government to create effective avenues of escape and to offer homosexuals from these countries political asylum.”
We should always provide asylum for genuine refugies, be they GLBT or otherwise, but you seem to be suggesting that the ultimate solution here is for the whole of gay Africa to simply pack up and leave and for their persecutors to be left to do as they please.
Don’t GLBT Africans have a birthright as citizens of their countries and isn’t that being stolen from them when they are forced to flee?
This is a particular issue in Uganda and other parts of Africa where gays have literally been told to get out en masse or face the consequences.
I agree totally that Third World debt should be ended and trade barriers opened. I also believe economic means such as aid suspension and targeted sanctions are legitimate tools in achieving human rights goals- look at South Africa.
As for Iraq and Afghanistan- that’s my column for next week, but I don’t expect you’ll like that one either.
I agree with the last point Shayne made. It’s outrageous that gays should be forced to go back to homophobic countries and face persecution and likely death. I can’t see any argument here.
I do argue with where the responsibility lies for anti-gay violence in Africa, the Middle-East and elsewhere. It lies squarely with the governments which control those countries. Regardless of its colonial past, the British government does not direct the social polices of Uganda, Iraq or any other of its former possessions in 2009. And the perpetrators of deaths and torture inflicted on Muslims in the Middle East are usually other Muslims – often governments and sometimes non-government terrorists like the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.
And yes, I do believe in lecturing others about human rights – even if it means upsetting so-called cultural senstivities (it’s interesting that Mugabe accuses critics of his vile regime of “racism” – precious little thing he is). I will always condemn homophobia as a human rights violation whether the culprit is Families First or the Ugandan regime (or whoever).
It’s easy to sit at our computers and complain about atrocities in the world. But are we interested in saving lives or are we solely interested in reminding ourselves how ethically superior we are? Its such a cynical exercise. If we can refrain from offering ill-informed and prejudiced opinion and do something that is part of the solution, then we’d really be on to something; as Gandhi said: “be the change that you wish to see in the world”.
First, we need to give up on the condescending idea of teaching anyone anything – mediaeval traditionalists do not have the complexity to understand modernist concepts such as human rights. They operate in a way that has more in common with our ancestors of 500 years ago when we burned gays at the stake.
Second, we need to support them in their evolution, forge bonds with them, such that their economies grow, giving them increased resources for education and reflection on life (free time and education are the 2 things most likely to accelerate cultural and personal transformation). We should end third world debt, end trade barriers that keep all of Africa poor, desist from our ongoing and barbaric persecution of Muslim countries. In the shadow of a million innocent Muslim deaths in the last decade, and in the light of guards still gouging out Muslim eyes at Gitmo, what credibility do you think we have to be lecturing them about human rights? We only entrench the power of the despots. For example, the ongoing slaughter of innocent Afghans (with the goal of accessing the oil in the Caspian Basin) has weakened the pro-US Pakistani government and set that country – with its 100 nukes – for an Al Qaeda takeover…but I digress.
And on the Western Mediaevalists, like the Pope and our own morally retarded Anglican churches, the argument has always been that homos can’t make babies. It isn’t about love in a relationship, it is about sex. Marriage to most religious folks is about sex. That’s why it’s important to them that no married couples have similar genitals.
And third, I’d say the most productive resolution to the problem – if it disturbs you unduly Andrew – would be to lobby our government to create effective avenues of escape and to offer homosexuals from these countries political asylum. Too often immigration authorities are unwilling to grant asylum because they see claiming discrimination against gays as insufficient reason. This is a change we can all help to bring about. So stop ranting about how you dreadful everyone else is, as if we play no part in those atrocities and be a part of the solution for change.
Hi David, I wouldn’t go so far as to call Uganda a failed state- it’s probably one of the more successful countries in the region, though its abstinence only approach to HIV has had predictable results.
I think Museveni’s staying in power has more to do with ego and control- that and a pliable electorate. If he quit or another party took power his life certainly wouldn’t be in danger- after all Idi Amin, the country’s former dictator lived out the last two decades of his life in total freedom in Saudi Arabia despite killing nearly half a million of his countrymen.
It seems odd that African religious zealots and dictators regard homosexuality as a foreign or imperialist plot and yet have no problem with the Church of England or the Bishop of Rome’s religion. But if you run a failed state which you’ve all but destroyed a consistent ideological line is not something to worry about. Staying in power (and therefore staying alive) is more of a concern.
In Papua New Guinea, male homosexuality is still Illegal with a maximum punishment of 14 years.
Hi David, that’s very true, and Peter Jensen has said as much. In much of sub-Saharan Africa the anti-gay wing of the Anglican Church is marching hand in hand with government in persecuting gays and pushing for harsher laws. However, Pentecostals and born-again style Evangelicals are pouring in the dollars as well and are growing and troubling force. I can see a particular appeal in Pentecostalism as African audiences are already very familiar with people being “ridden by the spirit” and the like in their own traditional spiritualities.
The ironic thing here is that prior to the period of European colonisation many of the African tribes used to blame homosexuality on Arab Muslim migrants and invaders.
In fact many African tribal societies once had room for same-sex relationships in one form or another- similar to the tribal societies of the Americas and Papua New Guinea.
Shayne- what exactly in this column amounts to “bigotry”?
I read somewhere that the virulent homophobia from Africa partly stems from the battle between Christianity and Islam for recruits. Since Islamic fundamentalism is stridently anti-gay, Catholics and Protestant churches have to match that. If they don’t, the Islamists can accuse them of being soft on Western decadence (homosexuality is always a colonial import – it apparently is not indigenous).
The Ugandan regime is of course using the same tactics as Mugabe and other local gangsters posing as government officials. As Andrew points out, gays are a useful ideological punching bag for local despots and religious fanatics.
Oh gawd, Andrew, another priviledged white boy whinge. You’re a self-styled social commentator who thinks he’s Noam Chomsky but sounds more like Miranda Devine. Wtf is the point of these rants week in and out that presume
to cure bigotry by adding your own bigotry, preaching hatred against the hate preachers, opposing absolutism absolutely, intolerance of intolerance, fundamentally opposing fundamentalism…etc?
In your own backyard, those that take millions in the name of the HIV+ are failing miserably at getting out the basic message about safe sex and that HIV is NOT a walk on the beach while the HIV+ underclasses face losing most of their meagre incomes to pay for your bourgeoise marriage
assimilationists. Get real girlfriend.
UPDATE: to illustrate the level of misunderstanding and hysteria in the country, the Ugandan Daily Monitor newspaper has over the weekend reported that a young boy has been expelled from his school for being raped by a paedophile. The child’s family are now being shunned by friends and neighbours and the child has been placed in counselling to “restrain him from inadvertently embracing homosexuality”