For the past two years or so, the world media has been talking about anti-LGBTQ bills in Uganda. Variously called the “Kill-the-gays” bills, they have taken various shapes over the last few years. In their latest form they increase penalties against homosexuality in Uganda to life imprisonment for “aggravated homosexuality,” and up to seven years in prison for a person who “aids, abets, counsels or procures” anyone to engage in homosexuality. HIV/AIDS counseling would count in that second category, as would simply declaring one’s own homosexuality or that one thought it was acceptable.
Yesterday, Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, signed the bill into law. Given his statement that the bill was a fight back against “social imperialism — to impose social values of one group on our society,” and the strong reaction of the United States and other Western governments against the law, most reporting (like the CNN link above) presented this as a case of a conservative country battling back against imperial Western-imposed liberalism. This is the same language Vladimir Putin has used to justify his own similar anti-LGBTQ laws.
The truth, though, is far darker, and implicates American evangelicals directly in the writing, funding, and promotion of these policies worldwide. Uganda provides an instructive example of how Western preachers have engaged in Africa, Eastern Europe, and the Middle East to promote murderous policy they can no longer advocate for openly at home.
“The Family,” also known as “The Fellowship,” is an ultra-secretive politically powerful Christian evangelical organization that runs, among other things, the National Prayer Breakfast and a group home in Washington, D. C in which many Republican Senators and Representatives live. In March 2009, American anti-gay activists, including representatives from The Family, traveled to Uganda to promote anti-gay legislation there. They recruited David Bahati, a Ugandan MP, to join The Family, and The Family’s president referred to him as the family’s “key man” in Uganda.