US Funding, for HIV Programs in Uganda

When the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 was signed into law in Uganda, the heads of Uganda’s international partners in the fight against HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS, PEPFAR, Global Fund) came out with a statement telling Uganda that was a bad move.
UNAIDS and its partners have always advocated for decriminalisation of same sex sexuality one of the major ways of HIV prevention. That is historical fact, so the statement should not have been a surprise.

In Uganda, the public sphere went amok.
‘The Americans’ were threatening to kill poor innocent Ugandans simply to spread and promote homosexuality. Cries of ‘blackmail’ and ‘bring it on’ were heard from Ugandan leaders, influencers and other concerned Ugandans. Our ‘sovereignty’ was defined under attack, our dependency on foreign aid decried and lambasted. Quite a lot was said-, quite a lot which should not have been said.

So, why should the HIV prevention efforts of Uganda be affected?

Simply because of the law. The Anti-Homosexuality Act; 2023.

The US spends almost half a billion dollars annually on a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention and care programme in Uganda. This is distinctly different from the military aid that is also under attack. These monies go on HIV/AIDS prevention and care, including some 1,2 Million Ugandans on life saving and life prolonging drugs.

Inevitably, since LGBTQ+ individuals are a key vulnerable population in HIV, there are programmes and clinics that focus on the LGBTQ+ population for prevention and care.

According to the text of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 as written; there is a Reporting mandate, and more that would impact HIV/AIDS programming.

·         HIV/AIDS prevention and care for ‘homosexuals’ is ‘Promotion of Homosexuality’, and was clearly defined in the law as such.

·         In that case, funders for the ‘promotion of homosexuality’ were criminalised.
Since USAID and PEPFAR (the American government) fund those clinics and organisations, USAID, PEPFAR and the American Government are clearly breaking the law of Uganda, and ‘promoting homosexuality’ by funding HIV/AIDS prevention and care in Uganda.

·         Organisations that work with homosexuals in HIV/AIDS are also very clearly ‘promoting homosexuality’ and are criminalised in Uganda, according to the Anti-Homosexuality Act.

·         Landlords who house the above organisations are also quite clearly criminalised in the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 of Uganda.

·         In another part of the Act, good Ugandans are encouraged to report the known ‘homosexual’ to Police.
The reporting mandate excluded lawyers, but it doesn’t exclude health care workers who include HIV/AIDS care workers, doctors to other extension workers.

Clearly, the law was a problem.
The American Ambassador to Uganda took it upon herself to have some discussions with relevant government people. Besides the real investment in funding over multiple decades of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, a lot of people could die, simply because there is a law against the ‘promotion of homosexuality’.

In the flying accusations of blackmail, telling the Americans to fuck off, with the Ministry of Health denying a problem as per its spokesperson, and other medics coming out and seeing nefarious reasons, aka, ‘promotion of homosexuality, the head of Uganda AIDS Commission had a blunt assessment

 

““they are just taking precautions and saying for communities that may be discriminated, ‘What steps do we want to put in place to ensure that they continue accessing treatment to ensure that they continue to access treatment?’”

 

Apparently, the Minister of Health, A medical doctor, was unhelpful on the concerns of ‘the Americans’, to the point that the American envoy’s assessment of her was brutal and blunt. Maybe she is more concerned for the spiritual safety of Ugandans than their physical health…, am just saying. Here is the American envoy’s assessment of Minister of Health Dr Ruth Aceng;

 

“She reportedly took issue with Health Minister Jane Aceng, who was not in the meeting, saying her disposition on the matter of homosexuality was likely to reverse years of gains in healthcare and particularly HIV/Aids treatment, largely supported by development partners.”

 

The American envoy then took it up with the President. Apparently the discussions were a little more fruitful.
The President made an announcement, medics and health care workers were not going to have to report known homosexuals. And of course it was a tacit green light to continue HIV/AIDS programming with the evil and dastardly, bad homosexuals, who happen to be citizens of Uganda.

So, the whole fracas ended up being partly resolved.
The US government and its organisations are not going to be hauled to Ugandan courts for ‘promotion of homosexuality’. The partner organisations in Uganda are not going to be defunded, nor are they going to be prosecuted, nor will they be forced to report their homosexual clients.

Turns out ‘the Americans’ were actually looking out for our people, Ugandans…!

What a shame? Err, we are fanatics and zealots in Uganda, on matters of homosexuality. We don’t get ashamed. We don’t even feel it, nor admit to that nefarious emotion. We are fighters, and winners, against homosexuals and homosexuality.

I doubt that that saga ends there. This is Uganda. Keep tuned in!

 

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Uganda & Ghana- Kuchus and HIV in Africa (2); The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (3)

  

Continued from the previous post: Kuchus and HIV in Africa (2); The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (2)

Uganda has actually had some great results with HIV prevention and care. It is deservedly praised…, as was lavishly commented on by the UNAIDS/PEPFAR/Global Fund joint statement.
Although the statement was taken quite negatively in Uganda, I think it was quite a ‘sucking up’ in many ways. The flattery, even evidence based, is quite a lot. Maybe Winnie Byanyima, knowing the Ugandan psyche thought it better to upload with lots of diplomatic nice talk to cushion the bite in the message…

If it was that, well, it was a dud.
Ugandans are quite consistent, and human. We embrace our prejudices with fervour and our prejudice to ‘homosexuality’  is the mother of all prejudices.Our doctors as detailed are also prejudiced. They are Ugandans!

But, we still expect better of them. A laughing stork Uganda demands people to blame. The medics are very convenient here…!
The Director General of Uganda AIDS Commission did explain the issue, though the article in the Daily Monitor relegated him to an after-thought. I guess it was more profitable for the paper to fan the flames of ‘Uganda is being bullied’!

Explains Dr Nelson Musoba, DG of UAC;

 

““they are just taking precautions and saying for communities that may be discriminated, ‘What steps do we want to put in place to ensure that they continue accessing treatment to ensure that they continue to access treatment?’”

 

Egg on our collective face as Ugandans. The conveniently reviled Americans were trying to protect our prize HIV/AIDS programme? The statement said so. It is our bad faith that read nefarious ‘colonialism’, ‘blackmail’, in their words. Prejudice twists clear thinking. Uganda collectively was a great example there.

But this begs the question, with Dr Nelson Musoba, Director General of Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) knowing these probable effects of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 on HIV programming, why wasn’t the Parliament of Uganda and the President of Uganda in the know? This is established science, this day and age of the HIV pandemic surely? It wasn’t ‘the Americans’ duty to inform our in-country experts.
Rumour was, Speaker of Parliament was so rushed to pass the bill UAC was not invited to the party. But, a lot of organisations came out detailing the probable effects of the proposed law. All that fell ‘on deaf ears’ in Uganda. No appeal to sanity could have stopped us passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023.

Why did it fall to the US ambassador in Uganda to actually secure a promise from the President that the health services would not be subject to the Reporting mandate in the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023?
It is ridiculous when the conveniently reviled Americans seem to care more about our people than we do. It is shameful, and that shame tracks back to Uganda’s medics and health care workers, the Ministry of Health and the Uganda AIDS Commission.

The American envoy to Uganda actually commented this about Dr Jane Aceng, which makes me wonder what Uganda’s Minister of Health, a medical doctor, has been saying behind closed doors.

 

“She reportedly took issue with Health Minister Jane Aceng, who was not in the meeting, saying her disposition on the matter of homosexuality was likely to reverse years of gains in healthcare and particularly HIV/Aids treatment, largely supported by development partners.”

 

That is a loaded statement, particularly coming from a diplomat.

The same challenges are happening in Ghana. But, in their case, though there are medics and health workers who don’t understand, it seems the Ghana AIDS Commission has come out against the anti-homosexuality bill in Ghana.
And, for that temerity, Members of Parliament in Ghana are condemning the Ghana AIDS Commission.
I think that that is better than in Uganda where the Ministry of Health seem both ignorant and unwilling to state facts. The doctors responsibility is to state the facts, part of that responsibility for the power we hand to our medics and health workers.

In Ghana, the anti-homosexuality bill in parliament aims to stop or reduce HIV/AIDS programming to Ghanaian Kuchus. Why? Because HIV programming is actually ‘promotion of homosexuality’.
The bills in our parliaments, plural, aim to stop the heinous ‘promotion of homosexuality’.

If true, and Ghanaian MPs are refusing to listen to the Ghana AIDS Commission…, well, please don’t blame ‘the Americans’ for our own ignorance, and failure to be educated because of prejudice. We are sovereign in that.

It is the member of the clan who should point out that the elder didn’t wash face in the morning. Not to wait for a guest or visitor.
Yeah, and as an African, I am pointing out to my dear leaders and elders-, your are walking around naked, with unwashed faces. You are embarrassing us, please!

 

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Kuchus and HIV in Africa; The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (2)

 

We esteem our doctors, medical and other health care workers tremendously in Africa. We should. In a continent with a dire lack of education, they are our educated elite. They also struggle to work under some pretty tough conditions, because of a lack of funds, lack of necessary instruments of care, and lack of political and other support.

With knowledge comes power, socially.

Medicine and the health sciences have a very rich background of study of my sexuality, because we are different from the common heterosexuality. It is not a new thing.
 I mean, we Kuchus (LGBTQ+) human beings, have been under study since life immemorial. We are a uniquely different part of humanity that persists in life to the contrary of expectations.

So, why are our African medical and health care professionals so clueless with regards to sexuality and other sexualities?
The excuse that it is not taught in African medical schools is not a good one. This is the internet age.
But our doctors have failed to explain issues. Yeah, Museveni asked twice, but I don’t think he wants a real answer… But his questions reflect a lot of the ignorance in Uganda. He is not wrong to ask our in-house docs. Even while he doesn’t listen.

Even lay people can educate themselves about a subject as interesting as homosexuality, and of course human sexuality.

The words of a Seniour psychologist and professor in Ghana pulled me down this line of reflection. I posted on it: - Kuchu Mental Health in Africa; The Failure of Africa’s Medics & Health Care Workers (1)

But, there is an even more immediate and urgent example of medics in Africa failing Kuchus as individuals and our nations collectively  because they are prejudiced on homosexuality. The case of HIV/AIDS.

When the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 was signed into law by the President of Uganda, UNAIDS/PEPFAR/Global Fund released a cautionary statement on the possible impact of the law.

 

“.., are deeply concerned about the harmful impact of the Ugandan Anti- Homosexuality Act 2023 on the health of its citizens and its impact on the AIDS response that has been so successful up to now.”

--

“Progress has been made thanks to the implementation of large-scale prevention, diagnosis, treatment and care programs, all provided on the principle of access to health care for all who need it, without stigma or discrimination. This approach has saved lives. The strong health systems built to support the AIDS response serve the entire population of Uganda.”

--

“Uganda’s progress on its HIV response is now in grave jeopardy. The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 will obstruct health education and the outreach that can help end AIDS as a public health threat.”

 

The resulting media storm was quite embarrassing. Shouts of ‘imperialism’, ‘colonialism,’ ‘promotion of homosexuality’, ‘blackmail’.
Winnie Byanyima, a Ugandan our country woman, currently Director General of UNAIDS was vilified and shamed in the papers and the people of her old constituency in Mbarara.

And why blame Uganda’s medics?

The issue was HIV/AIDS. Ugandan trained medical workers have a good grasp of HIV/AIDS. When UNAIDS, literally the World’s Most Important Specialist Doctor on HIV/AIDS comes out with such a statement, It was reasonable to expect Uganda’s HIV specialists to explain why UNAIDS was concerned. What was wrong? Why was there a problem? Why would PEPFAR, UNAIDS and Global Fund gang up on poor, homophobic Uganda?

And where were Uganda’s specialists to explain the problem?

They did. Medics say no to UN, US claims on gay Aids was the title headline in the Monitor.
The text revealed tremendous ignorance and our under current of homophobia. Of course these, our Ugandan medics, were much more believable than UNAIDS, even headed by Winnie Byanyima.

 

says Dr Daniel Kyabayinze, the head of public health affairs at the Ministry of Health

““Americans are trying to frame it as if we are against certain groups. I don’t know why they are attaching the Anti-homosexuality Act to the Ministry of Health. It has nothing to do with health,””

 

Sorry Dr Daniel Kyabayinze for calling you out, but that statement is really…, out there ignorant. That the Head of Public Health Affairs at the Ministry of Health of Uganda can actually state that legislation that criminalises Kuchus (LGBTQ+ individuals) has nothing to do with health and HIV/AIDS programming reveals considerable ignorance, and prejudice.
Blaming the Americans for our ignorance is not okay. HIV/AIDS has been about LGBTQ+ individuals and communities for the last 40 years of the pandemic. Why don’t you know it?

In Dr Kyabayinze’s defence, not many medics in Africa equate HIV/AIDS to homosexual sex. Heterosexual sex, yes. But Dr Kyabayinze is the Head of Public Health Affairs of the Ministry of Health. He is not ‘all doctors’.

If the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 doesn’t concern the Ministry of Health, why is it a long time policy of UNAIDS to strongly advocate for decriminalisation (removal of laws that criminalise homosexuals)?
This is a long standing policy of UNAIDS, the ‘Americans’ are not to blame...

As Head of Public Health in the Ministry of Health, Dr Kyabayinze should have been explaining to the Parliament of Uganda and the President, this long standing HIV prevention measure, and why it is important.

Another influential medic, and person living with HIV, also couldn’t help but reveal his ignorance. And his bias.

 

Dr Stephen Watiti, a person living with HIV/Aids (PLHIV), and chairman of the National Forum of People Living with HIV/Aids
““I know some of them who have HIV. [But] the majority of those people are not even HIV positive. Many LGBTQ members also get their medicines from abroad. The majority of those who are speaking here don’t even have HIV,””

 

The chairman of the National Forum of PLHIV should be aware of the actual issues. To him the problem was the politics, not the science. As a heterosexual person living with HIV, he doesnt understand. He has no understanding of the DOUBLE STIGMA of HIV and homosexuality.
Rev. Gideon Byamugisha also showed this lack of understanding even though he is also a PLWHIV. It is a reality of our kuchu lives.

And Dr Watiti, according to the statistics, I most kuchus living with HIV are actually Ugandans living in Uganda.

It was a crucial point in time.
At that time, the hype making the rounds was all about the big and bad and dirty, extremely evil Americans who were daring to caution that there was a problem with the very beautiful and lovely Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023.
In these cringe worth moments, when fellow Ugandans are puffing out their chests and loudly shouting how tough they are in standing up to ‘the Americans’, proof of their holy aims…,

And, our doctors, who should be in the know, failed us. Spectacularly.

 

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Ghana Anti-Homosexuality Bill, What does it say?

I am a Ugandan.., one of the lessons I have learnt with my country’s endless debates about my poor, personal sexuality is that details and specifics are important. Boring but important. Partly because I have to expect a lot of parsing, and frank lies, in the debate about homosexuality.
Not from me…, which is the whole problem. I expect the nasty, dirty, bad and evil homosexual to lie. Not the Saints of Anti-Homosexuality in Holy Africa.
But, I digress.

The anti-homosexuality bill in Ghana’s Parliament is a Private Member’s Bill that was introduced by Member of Parliament Sam Nartey George in 2022. Ghanaians being very proper people, the proper name for the bill is:

 

““Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, 2022””

 

The aims of this anti-LGBTQ+ legislation are not hidden…, if they are, it is in plain sight. Same sex intercourse is already criminalised in Ghana. So, this is ‘enhancement’ of the criminalisation sought. Here is a proper summary picked from a Ghanaian publication

 

 “The bill, when passed into law, seeks to provide a proper framework to sanitizing the Ghanaian society of the practices and ills of the LGBTQ+ community.”

and specifically

“aims to criminalize LGBTQ+ activities, prohibit the promotion or advocacy of such activities, and ensure the protection and support of children and individuals affected by LGBTQ+ issues.”

 

July 5^th, 2023 was the 2^nd reading of the Bill. And apparently amendments were made and accepted to the original. The amendments were approved to the original text unanimously.

 

““.., approved by all 275 lawmakers (present) on Wednesday after months of public debate and revisions to the 36-page document, introduced in 2021.””

 

The bill needs a third reading, and then accent by the President of the Republic to become the law of Ghana as reported here.

 

 “For it to come into force, it must still pass at least a third reading in the House and be signed into law by Ghanaian President”

 

So, what details, what does this newer anti-homosexuality legislation in Ghana say should be done?
I don’t have the text, so I had the pick of articles available, and remember, this was the second reading, not the final bill assented to by the Parliament of Ghana.

Details, details please;

·         Identity is criminalised.., I remember that was also in the original Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 in Uganda. To identify as homosexual is criminalised…!

“.., amendment to an anti-gay bill that would make identifying as LGBT punishable by a three-year prison sentence. “

·         Advocacy is criminalised. Why do the evil homosexuals need any sort of advocacy? This should be the dreaded ‘promotion of homosexuality’. Would be quite interesting to read the text.

“People who campaign for LGBT rights could also face up to 10 years in jail.”

 

·         Conversion therapy is in…, poor gay Ghanaians.

““… also validates "conversion therapy"”

 

And more to come.

·         criminalizes any form of LGBTIQ+ activism or support, as well as the dissemination of information.

·         It will punish homosexuals with a three-year prison sentence for identifying as such,
while LGBTQI+ rights advocates would face up to ten years in prison.

·         limits the provision of health services to this community, such as medication to treat HIV.

·         The proposed law encourages citizens to report neighbors who engage in homosexual relations to the authorities.

 

That is a quite substantive laundry list of demands of the law… Poor Ghanaian Kuchus, indeed.
I have also seen reference to this weird, more than weird provision.

 

“Moreover, the bill seeks to withdraw health services from this community, including HIV medication.”

 

That would be interesting. Ghanaians would rather have HIV spread rampart than have LGBTQ+ Ghanaians getting prevention, treatment and care?

Weird indeed.
But there are Ugandans, prominent and virulent anti-gay activists who would rather have had no HIV/AIDS aid from the US, if that was to be balanced against their anti-homosexuality bill. Of course it is more than likely those were not amongst the 1,2 Million Ugandans living with HIV. Anti-gay advocates are really fanatical about their demands.

 

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Myths and misconceptions from Gideon Byamugisha’s article

Reading Reverend Gideon Byamugisha’s article, a few things rubbed me the wrong way.

True, ours is a toxic environment, and his was a great call out of the pharisees in the churches, but I had to remind myself that allies are allies.
Kuchu (LGBTQ+) allies are necessary.., we are a minority. In our countries, in most of Africa, our allies literally speak for us. In many cases that is because we cannot speak on our behalf, for one reason or another.
But, they don’t necessarily truly know us.

We are a minority, however much the haters mobilise more hate by painting the farce of us ‘taking over’, or ‘turning the world homosexual’ as Archbishop Kaziimba and President Museveni believe. Sincerely held beliefs.
(Snigger, ridiculous and sad as it is, the President and Archbishop believe we homosexuals have an agenda to literally destroy the world.., in some way, and that is from their own mouths.)

Reverend Byamugisha is also a person in the Ugandan environment. He has been influenced by the lies, disinformation and myths that are peddled without challenge in Uganda. (Just like we, kuchus, internalise the homophobia in our environment).

In the first paragraph Byamugisha states

 

“Our grave challenges from some selfish homosexual practice recruiters and promoters notwithstanding…”

 

It is important to assert, again and again. We do not ‘promote’ homosexuality. We don’t need to promote what comes naturally to us. We just are. The rest is an invention of those who literally hate and tell lies about us.
In the same breath, we kuchus have to assert, we do not recruit into homosexuality. If one really thinks about it, it is a very ridiculous assertion, a BIG LIE that has taken root, especially in Uganda, promoted literally by anti-gay activists like Martin Ssempa, transplanted as is from the American Far Right. We kuchus, LGBTQ+ people, do not recruit! We don’t make people gay. We dont have an army to ‘recruit’ for. That language and the lies have only one purpose, to dehumanise and demonise kuchus, making us feared and hated by the public. To increase the prejudice against kuchus.

It infuriates me.., that the world has fallen for this false narrative of LGBTQ+ ‘recruiters and promoters’.
Byamugisha is stating what is general belief in Uganda. Homosexuals are dangerous because of ‘recruiters and promoters’. Apparently we as homosexuals have the itch to increase in some way. Thus the ‘recruiting and promoting’.

It is not only in Uganda. It is not only the ‘under-educated’ masses in Africa who believe this nonsense, though we are an easy mark. The anti-gay activists like Family Watch International (FWI), right wing proselytisers have been quite successful pushing the narrative that we kuchus of the world are ‘recruiting and promoting’ homosexuality. And of course the icing on the cake, we homosexuals are supposed to be ‘coming for your children’.

And the world believes that nonsense.

It shows a basic lack of understanding of sexuality. And an underlying desire to believe any and all evil of a stigmatised group. A willingness to suspend common sense, when the target is wrapped in ignorance, myths and there are some willing to push the big lie, in the name of religion or culture, or sovereignty…, or for whatever the reason is.

It is a lie. It is believed. And that is what is…

Yet I still wouldn’t want an ally to drop into the cesspool of thinking that we kuchus have this agenda to ‘recruit’, ‘promote’ and of course ‘come for their children’.

Yes. I know. ‘Promoting’, in the minds of anti-gay forces, especially in Uganda, means me defending myself, like I am doing in this post, debunking myths. That is what is called promoting…, and it is currently illegal in Uganda (Bite me. If that is promotion, I will promote…!). This blog is a shameless promoter of homosexuality.

Rev. Byamugisha also states

 

“Just like people living with HIV/Aids, suspected homosexuals suffer…”

 

Byamugisha has experienced first hand the stigma and prejudice of HIV/AIDS. And in his mind, the stigma and prejudice of ‘homosexuality’ in Uganda might seem similar.

I don’t think it is, though the processes might be similar in social psychology. Ultimately, HIV/AIDS is an infection. Its stigma was largely based on fear. The stigma and prejudice due to homosexuality especially in Uganda and much of Africa is different. Most people don’t realistically fear that they will become homosexual. We are a small, marginalised population which is not growing, despite the anti-gay hype. We are not going to make YOU homosexual! Most adults confident in their sexuality would not believe it so…, but, the anti-gay activists play to that fear, extensively.

HIV infection particularly affects kuchus. We then suffer a double stigma. Stigma of HIV infection and the stigma due to our sexuality.
In Uganda, at the moment, it is easier to come out as a person living with HIV. It is much, much harder to come out as kuchu. And those of us who are forced to come out would embrace being HIV positive before we embrace or come out as kuchu. That is brutal, but it is what is on the ground.

In the end, Rev Godfrey Byamugisha was very, very courageous. Calling out one’s bosses for moral failings is suicidal…, metaphorically speaking. But, he does it. And he does it on behalf of a minor, marginalised, persecuted social group, the kuchu in Uganda.

Damnation…, whenever I start cementing my belief in the evil of religion; Christian and Islam in Uganda and Africa…, there comes someone with the guts to call out my budding prejudice.
Most Christians and Moslems would lynch me, literally and metaphorically in Uganda and Africa, because of my sexuality. But, most does not mean all. There are a brave few willing to challenge the rivers of hate flowing.
Yeah, they do deserve a certain respectful notice. The Godfrey Byamugisha’s, Justin Welby and Pope Francis’ of this world. They are boulders rolling against the flow of rivers of institutionalised hate, and deserve my respect.

 

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