Africa is Marching Backward on LGBT Rights

Much of Africa remains a hell hole where ignorance flourishes and, if one is LGBT, the best option is to leave the continent entirely.   With leaders and legislators utterly ingnorant to the fact that anti-gay policies and homophobia were European imports, not indiginous to the continent, and American evangelicals and Christofascists working hard and spending lavishly to spread their anti-LGBT posion, prospects for improvement are bleak.   Adding to the ominous situation are Russia's and China's embrace of anti-gay policies as a wedge issue against American human rights policies.  Putin in particular has gone all in when it comes to anti-LGBT laws as he has pandered to the long anti-democractic and anti-modernity Russian Orthodox Church as a means to shore up political support on the home front. Leading the way in anti-gay extremism is Uganda where now simply being gay can lead toinprisonment.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the horrible reality across much of Africa.  Here are highlights:

The Ugandan parliament’s discriminatory bill making it a crime to identify as gay is an abhorrent assault on personal freedom and human dignity, and the country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, should not sign it into law. That may be too much to hope, since he has regularly made homophobic remarks, including last month calling LGBT people “deviants.” Also, this draconian bill passed to applause and cheers in the legislative chamber, with all but two of the 389 lawmakers at the session in favor.

Sadly, Uganda is not an outlier in Africa, posing a challenge for President Biden and other Western leaders as they seek to engage with countries on the continent — and keep them from joining China’s orbit.

Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill would not only make it illegal to identify as gay, punishable by prison time, it would also place a duty on friends and family members to report anyone in a same-sex relationship. Journalists and media outlets found to publish or broadcast supposed gay content could be prosecuted. Funding for any LGBT-related activities would be outlawed. And anyone found engaging in “aggravated homosexuality,” defined as abusing children or vulnerable people, would be subject to the death penalty.

Sadly, while this bill is extreme, Uganda is hardly alone in its anti-LGBT posture. Of the 64 or so countries that still criminalize same-sex relationships, at least half — at least 32 by most counts — are in Africa. While generally the world is moving toward more acceptance on LGBT rights, Africa forms a near-unanimous block of intolerance. A core group of African states nearly derailed the appointment and renewal of the United Nations Human Rights Council’s independent expert on sexual orientation and gender identity.

Near, but not unanimous. South Africa, which held its first Pride march in 1990, became the first country on the continent to legalize same-sex marriages. Five other countries have recently decriminalized same-sex relationships: Angola, Botswana, Mozambique, Lesotho and Seychelles.

The Spartacus Blog’s regular Gay Travel Index, which advises LGBT vacationers on the best places to enjoy themselves and where to avoid, lists only South Africa and the French island of Reunion as secure destinations in Africa for gay travelers. The worst-ranked countries are Niger, Mali, Lesotho, Cape Verde and Botswana. In four countries, Nigeria, Mauritania, Somalia and South Sudan, being gay is punishable by death.

Egyptian security forces in recent years have been accused by human rights organizations of detaining and torturing LGBT people. Rwandan authorities reportedly detained LGBT people in the lead-up to the 2021 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, saying they did not represent “Rwandan values.” Gay people in Nigeria are regularly arrested.

Vice President Harris, on her recent three-nation trip to the continent, rightly talked about the need for African countries to ensure “all people be treated equally.” She spoke first in Ghana, where the parliament is considering a bill almost as bad as Uganda’s that would imprison people who identify as gay and make it a crime to advocate for LGBT rights. Harris said she raised the issue of human rights in private talks with President Nana Akufo-Addo. . . . . But even that “quiet diplomacy” approach provoked fierce criticism. The Biden administration’s advocacy of LGBT rights is likely to come across as another example of the United States lecturing Africa and not listening.

China under President Xi Jinping and Russia under President Vladimir Putin have both taken a more conservative, backward turn on LGBT rights, trying to depict homosexuality as another example of a decadent West in decline. That message is likely to find resonance in Africa. U.S. evangelical religious groups operating on the continent are also reportedly pushing homophobic views.

The best approach is to emphasize that LGBT rights are human rights and to showcase those countries, such as South Africa, that have taken a different path. Biden has announced plans to make his first visit to the continent as president this year. He should not reward countries with abysmal records on LGBT rights with a presidential visit. In the face of such blatant discrimination, staying silent is not an option.