Uganda, And... Nations That Promote Hate of LGBTQIA2S+ People

David McKenzie and Eve Brennan posted a story on advocate.com about the latest bill that was signed into law in Uganda regarding the treatment of LGBTQIA2S+ people. President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill that included the death penalty for “'aggravated homosexuality,' which includes sex with a minor, having sex while HIV positive, and incest. The bill also criminalizes sex education for the gay community and makes it illegal not to expose what it calls perpetrators of aggravated homosexuality to the police. It calls for ‘rehabilitation’--widely discredited conversion therapy--for gay offenders.”

The seeds of this anti-LGBTQIA2S+ bill that were sown and grew into this bill were largely sown by Scott Lively, a well-known US anti-LGBTQIA2S+ pastor and evangelist, who spent years in Uganda and other countries on the African continent, sowing hate.

Civil society groups are looking for ways to challenge the law. And President Biden and other world leaders have written about the horrendous nature of this bill, and that will make it tougher for the US and other nations to support Uganda in relationship to other humanitarian concerns, like HIV programs.

Here’s a link to one of the stories about Uganda’s oppressive law:https://www.advocate.com/law/uganda-lgbtq-law-harshest

As a Christian pastor, theologian, and LGBTQIA2S+ activist, the reports about this bill need to be labeled for what it is: evil. Hate-filled. Tragic. Oppressive. Repressive. And because of the evil nature of the bill, we, the body of Christ, must resist it, for the sake, for the life, of our LGBTQIA2S+ siblings in Uganda.

But it is important to remember the other nations in the world the oppress LGBTQIA2S+ people. Countries that criminalize same sex conduct are: Afghanistan, Algeria, Bangladesh; Brunei Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Cook Islands, Dominica, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Grenada, Guinea, Guyana, Iran, Jamaica, Kenya Kiribati, Kuwait, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Myanmar, Namibia, Nigeria, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Qatar, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, Somalia, South Sudan, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania, Togo, Tonga, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Tuvalu, Uganda, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Yemen, Zambia, Zimbabwe. 

Death penalty for same sex conduct are Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Yemen, and now Uganda.

Here’s the link to the source of these countries: https://internap.hrw.org/features/features/lgbt_laws/

While we are suffering a backlash against us in the US as LGBTQIA2S+ people for all our advances, it is important for us to be mindful of which countries are worse or horrendous in terms of treating LGBTQIA2S+ people. And we must work, as an international community, and as Christians, to undo this evil in the world. 

May it be so.

Amen.


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