Weird, Queer Mood; Uganda, Ugandans on the World Bank

 

The World Bank released a statement. To dear Uganda; sorry, but our values and the values enshrined in the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023 are at war. We pause future aid.

Frankly, I am caught off guard.

Not by the fact that the World Bank would react like so. They are an important international institution. Quite vulnerable to politics and activism. Of course they do have values. And of course the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, Uganda’s beloved legislation of death and imprisonment to the homosexual…, it is weird out there bad.

Yet, believe it or not, Ugandans feel that they have been beset and bothered and are being set upon by the World Bank. How dare they!!!!

I understand, on a daily basis, that Ugandans, in Uganda, have a deep lack of understanding of who and what I am as a kuchu. It is sort of always in the background, that they think me less than human and evil and a demon. I hear it on radios and tvs and literally everywhere.
Yet, there is a part of me to which that chorus is water on a duck’s back. Always running off, never sticking. I am kuchu, and mature enough to know that that is no big deal.

Not so to my fellow Ugandans.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 is taken, and I have been told again and again and again by self righteous Ugandans, it is a measure of the Will of Ugandans in Uganda. It is their right, and right to have me in prison for life and on death row, simply because I am an evil homosexual.

They, fellow Ugandans, believe that.

And they are always supremely surprised that the rest of the world doesn’t believe so. That the world around actually condemns them for that act of great morality, the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023.

So, the President, apparently receiving the news late, pens his frustration on good old paper with ink. Odd…, maybe the old man hasn’t moved on to more modern means. The resulting missive he posts on twitter, (forgive, he posts on ‘X’). An X post indeed.
I haven’t read it…, I get depressed by our apparent lack of understanding of the realities of life. All I thought was…, now, those notes will be great in a Presidential library years and years from now! Weird reaction!
His message, summarised, was Uganda will develop, with or without the World Bank. Sour grapes, I think…, but, I am one of the very bad homosexuals.

‘Bobi Wine’ Kyaggulanyi, beleaguered president of the biggest party in opposition, was chagrined. The World Bank should care about Uganda’s other human rights transgressions. Not only about the homosexual genocide inherent in the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, Bobi Wine whines and whinges.

Weird reaction, as expected…, we are Ugandans.

From parliament, a necessary re-adjustment of the budget. World Bank monies were presumed…,
Which really shows how clueless Ugandan politicos and leadership is.

I can get that Museveni was blindsided, Archbishop Kaziimba mounted a blitzkrieg targeting parliament, Speaker Among had her own political irons in the fire and poor Asumaani Basalirwa is simply a stupid pawn…
But, once the deed was done, all of the results were predictable. An international game of chess, and Ugandan leaders are playing strictly to the local audience, blithely forgetting the world is NOT ‘Uganda the Village’.

Basalirwa is crying that it is ‘unfair’, his beautiful Anti-Homosexuality Act is being taken out of context. This naïve dude then repeats that we should rely on ‘The Arabs’.
Such leaders we have. Not a clue to the realities of international economics, finance, politics. He believes ‘the Arabs’ will hand Uganda development aid because he Basalirwa is a Moslem… And that is the pawn that presented the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda’s parliament?
Yet, to be accurate, the members of Parliament are more than 500. To my knowledge, only 2 seemed to have dissented from actualising the ‘Will of the People’.

Besides ‘adjusting’ the budget for this financial year, the politicians are of course whipping up the homophobia.
Expected. As in, who is to blame? Of course it is us, the very, very bad, evil and demonic homosexuals. We are to blame, clearly, in the eyes of all right thinking Ugandans.

LGBTQ+ activists have taken a muted victory lap.
Of course they are. And, I don’t blame us. We are very many things, but we are not angels. Our country has written into the law of the land Life imprisonment and Death to us, simply because we are who we are. Yes, LGBTQ+ activists in Uganda are really angry. My anger has been spilling out now and again here…, but I am just one.

Yet, though they campaigned for the World Bank to suspend the loaning, I am not a believer in our supposed demonic super powers as kuchus; crediting their lobbying with the results is simply an abuse of my thinking and capacity at logic.

One would think that independent media and newspapers in Uganda would be more discerning. But, this is Uganda. One would be very wrong.
On the subject of homosexuality, in Uganda, that is the National Prejudice. Sanity is the first thing out of the window of the debate room. The rest is fevered emotional, emotive reaction.

But…, and an important but, many Ugandans believe that it is our lobbying that has caused the World Bank to suspend loans.
Clueless Ugandans. I marvel again, that ‘Homosexuality and Homosexuals’ as we are called, are the National Prejudice. Yank on that chain, and Ugandans bark and predictably go into convulsions. Thinking and thought and logic are suspended, until the haze settles.

It is ‘Uganda The Village’, indeed. Our very own thinking bubble rejecting any thought to the contrary; demonic, as in literal demon possessed we are. However free the internet is, however open knowledge is, it has to be taken in, it has to be processed. It has to be understood.
And Ugandans are unable to think clearly, because the subject is Homosexuality, our National Prejudice!

True, many Ugandans blame Kuchu activists simply because a scapegoat is desperately needed. That is the pragmatic politics, and we are a uniquely visible invisible scapegoat. A predictable misstep was done by the leaders, they have to explain why a move that they were warned from the start was quite predictable is now taking them by surprise, indeed.

I mean, how many times were they warned that this was going to happen? And those warning were rubbished as ‘pro-homosexual’, and the righteous Speaker Among told all how we could all do without the aid?

Yes, the mood in Uganda is queer weird. Quite predictably so.

 

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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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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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