Prejudice in Uganda

by Eric Beauchemin, 12 January 2004

Victim of hate: John, a Ugandan who was tortured for being gay (see his story)

The consecration of a gay bishop in the United States in August 2003 sparked off a heated debate about homosexuality and the church throughout the world. Nowhere more so than in Africa. Anglican leaders in Uganda, for instance, condemned the confirmation of Reverend Gene Robinson, describing it as "regrettable, sad and lamentable". Nonetheless, gays and lesbians in Uganda are fighting to obtain recognition and acceptance.

 - click to hear the full radio programme 17:22

"Life is so hard when you are gay. In my village, people would stone me to death if they found out," says a gay man in his 20s. A 45-year-old, who had his first sexual experience with another man three years ago, uses equally stark terms to describe the position of gays and lesbians: "all of us are traumatised. We are afraid to come out. Most of us remain suffering inside."

Taboo

Forbidden: Ugandan anti-gay law Section 140 of the Ugandan Penal Code criminalizes "carnal knowledge against the order of nature" with a maximum penalty of life imprisonment. Section 141 prohibits "attempts at carnal knowledge" with a maximum penalty of 7 years' imprisonment. Section 143 punishes acts of, procurement of, or attempts to procure acts of "gross indecency" between men in public or private with up to 5 years' imprisonment. Homosexual acts between women are not mentioned. (Source: International Lesbian and Gay Association)

Homosexuality is a subject that regularly appears in the Ugandan press. It again hit the headlines in December when an 18-year-old high school student was caned in public after the school authorities discovered she was lesbian. A few days later she was dead. Initially, it was reported that she had committed suicide because of the public humiliation, but later it emerged that she had probably died from the beating she received at the school.

Another incident remains fresh in the minds of Uganda's gay and lesbian community: two teenagers who belonged to a Pentecostal church were caught having sex. The pastor ordered that they be flogged in front of the entire congregation. According to a human rights researcher, "this was carried out by off-duty police officers. The whole community who watched this have really had imprinted on them a hatred of gays."

Crackdown
The Ugandan authorities began to crackdown on homosexuals in October 1999 when two men decided to marry in a suburb of the Ugandan capital, Kampala. "The police were called in," says Pastor Brown, the leader of a local gay organisation called the Open Door Counselling Centre. "When the president heard that homosexuals were coming out and having weddings, he was furious. He ordered all the gays and lesbians who had attended the event to be arrested."

Pastor Brown: face manipulated to avoid retribution (see The Bishop's work for more information)

President Yuweri Museveni's directive extended to all gays and lesbians in Uganda for engaging in "abominable acts". No one knows how many people have been detained or tortured. According to a Western human rights investigator who wishes to remain anonymous, the crackdown was a convenient excuse to divert public attention from more pressing issues. "I think the police would only pursue this issue when there was a political agenda," he says. "If you have a lot of talk about corruption or persecution of opponents of the government, why not go and pick on gays and have a bit of a kafuffle about that issue to take people's minds off other things?"

Rights
In recent years, Uganda has become one of the "darlings" of the donor community. But gays and lesbians feel that their country has not earned that privilege. They are lobbying parliamentarians to scrap repressive legislation and include gay and lesbian rights in the country's new constitution, receiving support – albeit discretely – from several Western embassies. Foreign diplomats fear that more public support would only reinforce the notion in many Ugandans' minds that homosexuality is a "white man's disease".

Village mentality: human rights activists say even if Ugandan lawmakers changed their minds about homosexuality, public opinion would remain unchanged

The human rights researcher believes, though, that it will take time to change attitudes, just as it has in the developed world. "Public opinion has to be brought along with any changes that take place or there will be a violent backlash. There is such a thing as mob justice here. If the government said it's OK to be gay, there are still enough people out there who would want to lynch them and there wouldn't be many police officers who would stop them. I think working on public opinion, working on members of parliament who are open to reason, who are not blind with hatred for gays could make a difference."
 

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