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.

 

gug

Gay Rights at the UN

In a First, Gay Rights Are Pressed at the U.N.

By NEIL MACFARQUHAR
Published: December 18, 2008
UNITED NATIONS — An unprecedented declaration seeking to decriminalize homosexuality won the support of 66 countries in the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday, but opponents criticized it as an attempt to legitimize pedophilia and other “deplorable acts.”

The United States refused to support the nonbinding measure, as did Russia, China, the Roman Catholic Church and members of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. The Holy See’s observer mission issued a statement saying that the declaration “challenges existing human rights norms.”

The declaration, sponsored by France with broad support in Europe and Latin America, condemned human rights violations based on homophobia, saying such measures run counter to the universal declaration of human rights.

“How can we tolerate the fact that people are stoned, hanged, decapitated and tortured only because of their sexual orientation?” said Rama Yade, the French state secretary for human rights, noting that homosexuality is banned in nearly 80 countries and subject to the death penalty in at least six.

France decided to use the format of a declaration because it did not have the support for an official resolution. Read out by Ambassador Jorge Argüello of Argentina, the declaration was the first on gay rights read in the 192-member General Assembly itself.

Although laws against homosexuality are concentrated in the Middle East, Asia and Africa, more than one speaker addressing a separate conference on the declaration noted that the laws stemmed as much from the British colonial past as from religion or tradition.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, speaking by video telephone, said that just like apartheid laws that criminalized sexual relations between different races, laws against homosexuality “are increasingly becoming recognized as anachronistic and as inconsistent both with international law and with traditional values of dignity, inclusion and respect for all.”

The opposing statement read in the General Assembly, supported by nearly 60 nations, rejected the idea that sexual orientation was a matter of genetic coding. The statement, led by the Organization of the Islamic Conference, said the effort threatened to undermine the international framework of human rights by trying to normalize pedophilia, among other acts.

The Organization of the Islamic Conference also failed in a last-minute attempt to alter a formal resolution that Sweden sponsored condemning summary executions. It sought to have the words “sexual orientation” deleted as one of the central reasons for such killings.

Ms. Yade and the Dutch foreign minister, Maxime Verhagen, said at a news conference that they were “disappointed” that the United States failed to support the declaration. Human rights activists went further. “The Bush administration is trying to come up with Christmas presents for the religious right so it will be remembered,” said Scott Long, a director at Human Rights Watch.

The official American position was based on highly technical legal grounds. The text, by using terminology like “without distinction of any kind,” was too broad because it might be interpreted as an attempt by the federal government to override states’ rights on issues like gay marriage, American diplomats and legal experts said.

“We are opposed to any discrimination, legally or politically, but the nature of our federal system prevents us from undertaking commitments and engagements where federal authorities don’t have jurisdiction,” said Alejandro D. Wolff, the deputy permanent representative.

Gay-rights advocates brought to the conference from around the world by France said just having the taboo broken on discussing the topic at the United Nations would aid their battles at home. “People in Africa can have hope that someone is speaking for them,” said the Rev. Jide Macaulay of Nigeria.

More Madness from Ssempa??

Ugandan Aids Actors threatens to drag UNAIDS in court

Ugandan Religious clergies have threaten to drag UNAIDS into courts of laws if they do not openly apologise for the recent saga that involved homosexuals( Pro gay activists) during the implementers meeting on HIV/AIDS in kampala.The suspects where held by the police and detained for their wrongful demonstration promoting the illegal activity in the country. A senior HIV/AIDS expert from UNAIDS by the names of Dr. Michel Sibide the deputy executive director of UNAIDS advocated for the release of these suspects which annoyed the Faith based organisation officials and other church leaders. ''That activity was void and illegal'' said Pastor Ssempa. “In fact we need a formal apology from Dr. Sibide and his group for their continued support towards immoral activities. Uganda is a holy nation and it must be preserved by the business of supporting activites that degeneralise our nation MUST stop.” Reverend Kamya Paul of Namirembe Christian Fellowship. The suspects who where arrested included Pepe Juliana Onzema,Usaam Mukwaya and Valantini Katende. Under normal circumstances these people had to face life imprisonment under the ''unnatural offences'' in section 140 of penal code. Reverend Canon Gideon Byamugisha an aids activist also condemned UNAIDS for their continued support of activities that does not help the country instead of suppporting programmes of positive changes.

Uhm!

Though I must say Canon Gideon's words are being taken out of contest, and the meaning changed. Or reversed, I must say.

Was Ssempa taken out of contest too? But it sounds suspiciously like something that he would say. And he claims to have an MPH and to be an AIDS activist!

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Ugandan LGBT AIDS Activist Re-arrested and Released, Charges Added

Dear All,

One of the three Ugandan LGBTI activists who was arrested at the HIV/AIDS Implementers' Meeting in Kampala on the 4th of June 2008, was re-arrested
and held for an additional four and a half hours today. In response to demands for his release from his lawyer, the Chairperson of Sexual
Minorities Uganda (SMUG), and UNAIDS, Usaam Mukwaaya was released this afternoon on the condition that he returns to the police on 10 June 2008.

Despite the fact that accredited cards for attendance at the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers’ Meeting were given to all three of the LGBTI activists by
the sponsors of the international meeting, the police have refused to drop the charge of criminal trespass against the three activists and have
added a charge of forgery against Mukwaaya today, claiming that he did not have a valid permit for attending the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers’
Meeting.

After the release of the three LGBTI AIDS activists yesterday, a collective decision was made by the co-sponsors of the 2008 HIV/AIDS Implementers
meeting to accredit Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) to attend the meeting. An official letter accompanied by three accredited official cards for
attending the conference was awarded to the LGBTI AIDS activists.

Despite this fact, the police have refused to drop the charges of criminal trespass and forgery. UNAIDS has submitted a statement to the Ugandan
Police indicating that the card was not forged and was issued officially by the sponsors of the meeting.

NOTE: The charges against the three LGBT AIDS activists HAVE NOT BEEN DROPPED and their case is still scheduled to be heard on the 20th of June
2008. Please continue the pressure to request them to drop all
charges against the activists

SEXUAL MINORITIES UGANDA

Nsaba Buturo’s Change of mind

Saturday was a beautiful day. Yet there was something in the New Vision which lifted my mood and made me want to sing the whole day.

There was this article, which I am lifting whole from the paper.

UNBELIEVABLE! These could be the only kind words from the ethics and integrity state minister, Dr. James Nsaba Buturo, to homosexuals.

He has come across as anti-gay on many occasions, prompting the gay-rights activists to push for his blacklisting. They were claiming that Buturo was violating the human rights of some citizens and peddling homo-phobia.

Could this be the reason why he is now singing a different tune? Buturo has criticised medical practitioners who discriminate against homosexuals living with HIV/AIDS. He said that although the Constitution does not condone homosexuality, they should not be denied medical facilities.

“I condemn medical practitioners who deny Anti-retro-viral drugs to gays. No one wants to acquire HIV/AIDS. All human beings are equal before God,” Buturo said in an interview on Monday.

Dr James Nsaba Buturo. A PhD in economics, I believe. A Christian who is fundamentalist. He has not been kind to us ‘homos’ as he calls us.

I do welcome even this small change in his mind. I don’t know how genuine it is. Is it? I do not know. The things that he has said and done in the name of ‘resisting homosexuality’ are many.

In 2004, as State Minister for Information, and official government spokesperson, he held a press conference and informed the country that he had learnt of a despicable plot to promote homosexuality in the country, in the guise of preventing HIV, and it was being promoted by UNAIDS. His words were very unkind. UNAIDS being a diplomatic institution, was sent a strongly worded protest note. The then Country Representative of UNAIDS was ‘relocated’ to some other country.

Since that time, no NGO dared to touch HIV prevention amongst gays in the country. If the UNAIDS Country Rep was not immune, then who was immune to the government’s wrath?

The things that Mr Buturo has said in the previous 3 months since the press conference have been incredible venom. He wondered how on earth we could have held a press conference when we were ‘illegal’, what was the police doing? He repeatedly said that he knew us and was ready to move on us. He went to the demonstration against homosexuality as the government representative. Homosexuality was against 3 laws, that of god, the country, and morality? He told us to migrate out of the country. That we were unacceptable. We have no rights according to him.

The vitriol flowed, the venom envenomed the debate. Some of the people who would have supported him were really surprised. It was too much hate in the name of love.

I called him a homophobe. A person with an irrational hate or fear of homosexuality. I just cannot understand why he hates me so much when he does not really know me. Human Rights Watch attacked the government, saying that it was sponsoring Homophobia.

That was hardly three months ago.

And suddenly, his tune has changed. The news editor found it unbelievable. I did too. Why? Why of a sudden does he find that we are human beings? Why does he of a sudden find that we do deserve treatment at the hospitals? Why is he blaming doctors now? How come he finds that no one, (not even homosexuals), deserves to get HIV?

Of course what he said was mainly political. I have not heard of any doctors denying us treatment. But I know that he is one of the major reasons why we still have no national programme to prevent HIV amongst Kuchus in Uganda.

It was a brilliant day, Saturday. A very beautiful day, inside and out.

GayUganda