Homophobia affecting gay people in Africa

[CH1]

I decided to start this thread for information. Several Twitter posters give information on gay issues in Africa. Particularly the still pending criminalisation bill in Ghana, which may soon to be followed by a similar attempt at private members legislation in Kenya.
For starters here is Dr Frank Mugisha, a gay activist in Uganda, with a video clip of the police restraining an angry crowd seeking to have vengeance on a lesbian in a school in Jinja, Easter Uganda. This sort of thing is bad enough as spontaneous hatred - but often in African countries it is fanned by fundamentalist Christians connected to and funded by the American far right

 

[CH1]

Fnank has a followup to that. LGBT Ugandans face backlash as parliament launches schools investigation
Section 28? - no this looks more like McCarthy.

 

[likesfish]

Life is cheap in africa add imperial legacy law and poisonous American evangelical influence .
Ugandan UN soldiers on facing child soldiers “ it’s difficult to shoot them they are small targets and they move fast”.
That’s the reality your dealing with going to bed not hungry and not murdered is a success .
Heard a dit about squaddies being sent to “rescue” two idiot sncos who were being held hotstage in a slum for a “ransom” of nearly £100!
When the rescue team found out about the ransom demanded they made the idiot “hostages”pay nearly double to the “ kidnappers” .
That was still 10x less than the fine they faced if they’d been court martialed

 

[CH1]

Life is cheap in africa add imperial legacy law and poisonous American evangelical influence .
Ugandan UN soldiers on facing child soldiers “ it’s difficult to shoot them they are small targets and they move fast”.
That’s the reality your dealing with going to bed not hungry and not murdered is a success .
Heard a dit about squaddies being sent to “rescue” two idiot sncos who were being held hotstage in a slum for a “ransom” of nearly £100!
When the rescue team found out about the ransom demanded they made the idiot “hostages”pay nearly double to the “ kidnappers” .
That was still 10x less than the fine they faced if they’d been court martialed

That's not the point I'm starting from.
BTW there are probably a load of gay Ugandans in the Home Office backlog.
We've had discussions with them at South London Gays.
What is frightening to me is "African justice".
Here is a Deutsche Welle example Mob justice in Africa – DW – 05/05/2016
This seems to be happening in my first post - rather like 17th century East Anglia or Salem a teacher is thought to be a witch (sorry Lesbian) so the mob are coming for her.
And Christian fundamentalist are coming for her!

Archbishop Justin Welby visited Ghana immediately after the Church of England Synod obfuscated on the issue of gay marriage.
In Ghana a private members bill is going before parliament seeking to impose 14 years imprisonment on people for being gay.
I wonder if Arch bishop Justin had anything to say about that to his fellow clerics in Ghana?

 

[kalidarkone]

I really don't like the title of this thread and think it should be changed to 'Homophobic issues in Africa' because that is the obvious issue.

 

[bimble]

Life is cheap in africa add imperial legacy law and poisonous American evangelical influence .
Ugandan UN soldiers on facing child soldiers “ it’s difficult to shoot them they are small targets and they move fast”.
That’s the reality your dealing with going to bed not hungry and not murdered is a success .

Jesus. This is the most pathetic “dark continent” crap I’ve seen for a long while. There’s massive issues, the church’s influence is a big part of it in ghana for instance, but this is just infantilising othering bollocks.

 

[kalidarkone]

I really don't like the title of this thread and think it should be changed to 'Homophobic issues in Africa' because that is the obvious issue.

Thanks for changing it.

 

[bellaozzydog]

Life is cheap in africa add imperial legacy law and poisonous American evangelical influence .
Ugandan UN soldiers on facing child soldiers “ it’s difficult to shoot them they are small targets and they move fast”.
That’s the reality your dealing with going to bed not hungry and not murdered is a success .
Heard a dit about squaddies being sent to “rescue” two idiot sncos who were being held hotstage in a slum for a “ransom” of nearly £100!
When the rescue team found out about the ransom demanded they made the idiot “hostages”pay nearly double to the “ kidnappers” .
That was still 10x less than the fine they faced if they’d been court martialed

Is there a single topic you can approach without riproaring hyperbole and stereotyping

 

[Pickman's model]

Is there a single topic you can approach without riproaring hyperbole and stereotyping

You should hear him rant about the sex life of a table tennis ball

 

[Dystopiary]

I decided to start this thread for information. Several Twitter posters give information on gay issues in Africa. Particularly the still pending criminalisation bill in Ghana, which may soon to be followed by a similar attempt at private members legislation in Kenya.
For starters here is Dr Frank Mugisha, a gay activist in Uganda, with a video clip of the police restraining an angry crowd seeking to have vengeance on a lesbian in a school in Jinja, Easter Uganda. This sort of thing is bad enough as spontaneous hatred - but often in African countries it is fanned by fundamentalist Christians connected to and funded by the American far right

Frank Mugisha in 2014 was talking about an American Christian evangelist called Scott Lively, who spread hateful anti-LGBT+ propaganda in many places including Uganda.

"Everything he said was totally not Ugandan," says Mugisha. "[The idea] of a gay agenda, of recruiting people to homosexuality – that language wasn't used in Uganda pre-2009.

It was months after his visit that the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill was bought before parliament, originally proposing death penalty clauses.

Frank Mugisha: 'Homophobia is not African. It's imported'

Scott Lively - Wikipedia

The evangelist has written books including The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, which suggests that Nazism has roots in homosexuality, and Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Children from Homosexuality and the "Gay" Movement. Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) tried to sue Lively:

Frank Mugisha, who heads [SMUG], said it was targeting Lively for "helping spread propaganda and violence" against gay people in Uganda.

"We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda," Mugisha, who won the Robert F Kennedy human rights award last year, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "We want to send out a clear message to him and to others."

The complaint claims Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a "genocidal" and "paedophilic" gay movement which he "likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers". It seeks a judgment that Lively's actions violate international law and human rights.

but unfortunately in 2017 the case was dismissed.

Last year SMUG was ordered to be shut down.

The Metro of all places ran an article this week about the new anti-LGBT+ bill and the threats LGBT+ people in Uganda already face.

Tensions – and fear – are rising in Uganda for LGBTQ+ people. Among them is Kampala resident Eric Ndawula, who was outed by an online video.

His landlord almost immediately evicted him.

‘I am now a threat to the children around because I am going to recruit them into homosexuality,’ Ndawula told Reuters ironically.

After all, the new anti-LGBTQ+ bill claims without a shred of evidence that LGBTQ+ ‘propaganda’ has led to ‘hundreds of children being lured and initiated into this practice’.

Life is already challenging for LGBTQ+ Ugandans. Isolation, verbal abuse, threats, violence and fear are what so many know well.

Gay Ugandans 'go back into hiding' after MPs introduce horrific anti-LGBTQ+ law

 

[Dystopiary]

Frank Mugisha is on twitter:

https://twitter.com/frankmugisha

 

[Orang Utan]

Jesus. This is the most pathetic “dark continent” crap I’ve seen for a long while. There’s massive issues, the church’s influence is a big part of it in ghana for instance, but this is just infantilising othering bollocks.

Spot on. Dunno why this poster is still here. They’ve been doing similar ignorant and stupid shitposting the whole time

 

[CH1]

One of the very disappointing things about recent Uganda politics is the alignment of Bobi Wine - a prospective opposition successor to 6 tmes President Museveni with Buju Banton, I guess people here will be familiar with Buju Banton combining music and homophobia - or "murder music" as it was called in the 1990s. Banton and Wine campaigned together in the last Ugandan presidential election - but having been badly beaten up by government forces in the campaign, Bobbi Wine is apparently now under house arrest.

Some of Peter Tatchell's Ugandan refugee friends came to a South London Gays discussion meeting pre covid and chatting afterwards one of these guys told me that they managed to get Bobi Wine banned from visiting UK. He certainly had some cancellations from UK venues on account of homophobic lyrics.
Bobbi Wine's Wikipedia entry is rather sad. Bobi Wine - Wikipedia

In a further twist there is the case of the 45 Uganda Martyrs. These were 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic converts in the age range 15-30 who were in the service of the king of Buganda in 1885-7. Their religious instructors told them it was wrong to give into sexual advances from the monarch - and he had young men who declined him executed.

Uganda Martyrs - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

It must be confusing indeed if Ugandan Catholics or Anglicans hear that gay relationships are OK. What have we done?

 

[CH1]

Frank Mugisha is on twitter:

https://twitter.com/frankmugisha

Not Frank but a trans Ugandan man called Victor is interviewed in this BBC News Witness History documentary from about 9m - 13 m
BBC World News - Witness History, LGBT Special (from 25 Feb 2023).

It amazes me how a person who had such horrific difficulties yet remains positive and cheerful.
The beginning of the BBC programme is about the genesis of the AIDS quit in America in 1985.
I saw a large portion of the Quilt in a memorial event in Evanston Illinois in 1990 - a patch I recognised was for Sylvester.

 

[CH1]

Frank pulls up Rishi

 

[CH1]

Gal-Dem article on the Ghana anti gay bill

‘The day Ghana’s anti-LGBTQI+ bill is passed, I will be in jail’

Musician Angel Maxine on the dangerous bill that would criminalise queer people and activists.

gal-dem.com

 

[CH1]

Rightify Ghana here describing a shake-down by military officers at a birthday party in Accra.
The police had already invaded the party and demanded 200 Ghana cedis for a permit and 500 Ghana cedis for the DJ to get his impounded equipment back [about £70 total, quite a lot in a poor country]
The army guys then turned the place over.

 

[CH1]

Meanwhile in Kenya things are also looking dodgy. Former two-term president Uhuru Kenyatta was rumoured to be gay - he certainly showed no interest in anti gay clamp downs.
Unfortunately his newly elected Successor William Ruto is a different kettle of fish see article:

Sharp Rise In Homophobia In East Africa Sparks Fear Of Violence - Health Policy Watch

Over the past week, there has been a steep rise in anti-LGBTQ activity organised by prominent politicians and religious leaders in Kenya and Uganda, which

healthpolicy-watch.news

People are already proposing legislation to crack down on gays - as in Uganda and Ghana this is being promoted by the independent churches which are linked to Christian Conservative groups in the US.

 

[CH1]

Altered Biden anti gay clip circulating says this Kenya report

Clip of US President Joe Biden vilifying gay people was digitally manipulated

Social media posts circulating in Kenya and Uganda claim to show a video of US President Joe Biden saying that homosexuality has no place in modern civilisation. The clip surfaced after Kenya’s Supreme Court rejected a government attempt to ban the LGBTQ community from registering a rights...

news.yahoo.com

 

[CH1]

More from Uganda via Frank Mugisha

Uganda considers bill to criminalize identifying as LGBTQ | CNN

Uganda's parliament on Thursday took up a bill that would criminalize identifying as LGBTQ, with lawmakers saying the current ban on same-sex relations does not go far enough.

edition.cnn.com

 

[wemakeyousoundb]

not directly related but the people behind this type of grift are definitely part of the problem.
I remember reading a guide book before going to Kenya in the late 80s which specifically said: if you see men holding hands while walking it is a sign of friendship and not of being "gay", I wonder if this is still the case?

 

[CH1]

not directly related but the people behind this type of grift are definitely part of the problem.
I remember reading a guide book before going to Kenya in the late 80s which specifically said: if you see men holding hands while walking it is a sign of friendship and not of being "gay", I wonder if this is still the case?

Maybe they need Southwark Council Trading Standards Team

https://www.southwark.gov.uk/news/2023/feb/bishop-climate-wiseman-gets-suspended-jail-sentence-after-council-investigation.

On men holding hands - this used to be common in West Africa and India. In India I think holding a girl's hand would have caused a riot in years gone by.

 

[CH1]

Uganda anti gay bill faces court objections of parliamentary abuse of procedure

Mabirizi runs to court over Anti-Homosexuality Bill

The lawyer argues that, among others, Speaker Anita Among, who is supposed to be neutral, is biased in favour of passing the Bill

www.monitor.co.ug

 

[CH1]

From Frank today. The speaker of the Ugandan parliament is not neutral at all! Rabid might be a better description.

Speaker urges Busoga to vote out pro-gay MPs

Ms Among called for collective responsibility and vigilance in naming and shaming legislators who promote homosexuality

www.monitor.co.ug

 

[CH1]

Sad welcome recognition

 

[krtek a houby]

And there it is.

Ugandan MPs pass bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality

 

[WhyLikeThis]

Miserable. Does anyone have any good writing on the background to this?

 

[CH1]

And there it is.

Ugandan MPs pass bill imposing death penalty for homosexuality

I've met several gay Ugandan refugees who were being helped by Peter Tatchell and gave updates on their cases at a South London Gays meeting. Presumably if any are still waiting for assessment the Home Office can't deny their rights in their home country are under extreme threat?
Compared to Sue Braverman, child of Kenyan and Tanzanian "refugees" - this makes her parents look like opportunistic economic migrants.

 

[CH1]

Rev Jide nails it

 

[ice-is-forming]

"Aggravated homosexuality"

I'm lucky enough to have this man as a colleague. Since the late 80s he's been working with LGBTIQ human rights in Africa, particularly Uganda. He's pretty devastated by the way the voting went on this, but it's not like it was a surprise

William Anthony Rutkin OAM

We have so much to do before all Australian LGBTIQ people can say they’re just.equal whether it be parenting rights, transgender recognition, safe learning environments, dignity in aged services, national mental health initiatives, to name just a few.

www.equal.org.au