May 29th, 2010, 23:05
A well-locked closet. Gays are under attack in poor countriesтАФand not just because of тАЬlocal cultureтАЭ
From The Economist print edition. May 27th 2010
THEIR crimes were тАЬgross indecencyтАЭ and тАЬunnatural actsтАЭ. Their sentence was 14 yearsтАЩ hard labour: one intended, said the judge, to scare others. He has succeeded. A court in Malawi last week horrified many with its treatment of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a gay couple engaged to be married. The two men are the latest victims of a crackdown on gay rights in much of the developing world, particularly Africa.
Some 80 countries criminalise consensual homosexual sex. Over half rely on тАЬsodomyтАЭ laws left over from British colonialism. But many are trying to make their laws even more repressive. Last year, BurundiтАЩs president, Pierre Nkurunziza, signed a law criminalising consensual gay sex, despite the SenateтАЩs overwhelming rejection of the bill. A draconian bill proposed in Uganda would dole out jail sentences for failing to report gay people to the police and could impose the death penalty for gay sex if one of the participants is HIV-positive. In March ZimbabweтАЩs president, Robert Mugabe, who once described gay people as worse than dogs or pigs, ruled out constitutional changes outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In many former colonies, denouncing homosexuality as an тАЬunAfricanтАЭ Western import has become an easy way for politicians to boost both their popularity and their nationalist credentials. But Peter Tatchell, a veteran gay-rights campaigner, says the real import into Africa is not homosexuality but politicised homophobia.
This has, he argues, coincided with an influx of conservative Christians, mainly from America, who are eager to engage African clergy in their own domestic battle against homosexuality. David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who proposed its horrid bill, is a member of the Fellowship, a conservative American religious and political organisation. тАЬAfrica must seem an exciting place for evangelical Christians from places like America,тАЭ says Marc Epprecht, a Canadian academic who studies homosexuality in Africa. тАЬThey can make much bigger gains in their culture wars there than they can in their own countries.тАЭ Their ideas have found fertile ground. In May this year, George Kunda, ZambiaтАЩs vice-president, lambasted gay people, saying they undermined the countryтАЩs Christian values and that sadism and Satanism could be the result.
Discrimination against gays, in Africa in particular, risks undermining the fight against HIV/AIDS. In February, those suspected of being gay were targeted in Kenya in mob violence at a government health centre providing HIV/AIDS services. Bishop Joshua Banda, chairman of ZambiaтАЩs National AIDS Council, said that donor countriesтАЩ efforts to speak out against violations of gay rights were against ZambiaтАЩs тАЬtraditional valuesтАЭ. The increasing crackdown on gay rights in Africa will be a disaster for public health, according to Mr Epprecht, as gay people go underground and do not get treatment for HIV/AIDS. http://www.economist.com/world/internat ... d=16219402 (http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16219402)
From The Economist print edition. May 27th 2010
THEIR crimes were тАЬgross indecencyтАЭ and тАЬunnatural actsтАЭ. Their sentence was 14 yearsтАЩ hard labour: one intended, said the judge, to scare others. He has succeeded. A court in Malawi last week horrified many with its treatment of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga, a gay couple engaged to be married. The two men are the latest victims of a crackdown on gay rights in much of the developing world, particularly Africa.
Some 80 countries criminalise consensual homosexual sex. Over half rely on тАЬsodomyтАЭ laws left over from British colonialism. But many are trying to make their laws even more repressive. Last year, BurundiтАЩs president, Pierre Nkurunziza, signed a law criminalising consensual gay sex, despite the SenateтАЩs overwhelming rejection of the bill. A draconian bill proposed in Uganda would dole out jail sentences for failing to report gay people to the police and could impose the death penalty for gay sex if one of the participants is HIV-positive. In March ZimbabweтАЩs president, Robert Mugabe, who once described gay people as worse than dogs or pigs, ruled out constitutional changes outlawing discrimination based on sexual orientation.
In many former colonies, denouncing homosexuality as an тАЬunAfricanтАЭ Western import has become an easy way for politicians to boost both their popularity and their nationalist credentials. But Peter Tatchell, a veteran gay-rights campaigner, says the real import into Africa is not homosexuality but politicised homophobia.
This has, he argues, coincided with an influx of conservative Christians, mainly from America, who are eager to engage African clergy in their own domestic battle against homosexuality. David Bahati, the Ugandan MP who proposed its horrid bill, is a member of the Fellowship, a conservative American religious and political organisation. тАЬAfrica must seem an exciting place for evangelical Christians from places like America,тАЭ says Marc Epprecht, a Canadian academic who studies homosexuality in Africa. тАЬThey can make much bigger gains in their culture wars there than they can in their own countries.тАЭ Their ideas have found fertile ground. In May this year, George Kunda, ZambiaтАЩs vice-president, lambasted gay people, saying they undermined the countryтАЩs Christian values and that sadism and Satanism could be the result.
Discrimination against gays, in Africa in particular, risks undermining the fight against HIV/AIDS. In February, those suspected of being gay were targeted in Kenya in mob violence at a government health centre providing HIV/AIDS services. Bishop Joshua Banda, chairman of ZambiaтАЩs National AIDS Council, said that donor countriesтАЩ efforts to speak out against violations of gay rights were against ZambiaтАЩs тАЬtraditional valuesтАЭ. The increasing crackdown on gay rights in Africa will be a disaster for public health, according to Mr Epprecht, as gay people go underground and do not get treatment for HIV/AIDS. http://www.economist.com/world/internat ... d=16219402 (http://www.economist.com/world/international/displaystory.cfm?story_id=16219402)