LGBTQ Rights – African Politicians’ Biggest Scapegoat

[el_bryanto]

Many people ask why these leaders and presidents are making such horrific statements about their own LGBTQ/I populations when many African sexual minorities are already living in hiding and fear for their lives. What needs to be understood is that these words are almost always used in the context of attacking the West or Western culture. By adopting the claim that homosexuality is foreign to Africa and only exists because of the West, their denouncement of homosexuality is seen as fighting back against historic neo-colonialism or imperialism—which, in turn, gains broad praise from their constituents.

It is true that Western nations have not always acted in the interest of Africa (to put it mildly), but to use the West as an excuse to persecute and imprison innocent persons is appalling. Politicians like Mugabe and Jammey, who have robbed their respective nations of billions of dollars, are also responsible for their countries’ dire economic states. These African leaders condemn the West and scapegoat gays to distract from real issues facing their nations and to hide their own incompetence, corruption, and despotism.

. . . Of course, the ultimate irony of this sad tale is that it is not LGBTQ people who are foreign to Africa, but rather the anti-LGBTQ rhetoric that is being used against them. Jammeh’s and Mugabe’s words were so heavily influenced by U.S.-based conservatives—people like Sharon Slater, Scott Lively, Lou Engle, and Rick Warren, and U.S.-based organizations like the American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ). They are all among hundreds of other U.S. culture warriors, who deny that LGBTQ rights are human rights, and work to spread their beliefs in Africa where there are already few legal, religious, or police protections for African sexual minorities.

Article by Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma. Well worth reading, if you are interested in this issue

Bryant

[951-Riverside]

1. You'd think the most hated and discriminated against people in the world would be more tolerant n/t

[el_bryanto]

2. I think many of them are

I think that's the point to recontextualizing their attacks on Homosexuals to attacks on the west and western imperialism. As for why they would want to do that, well corrupt politicians might be getting something out of it, from being able to attack political enemies to financial donations from right wing Christian groups.

Bryant

[Jesus Malverde]

4. Like any peoples...

Africa is a complex place where ethnicity might be subservient to tribe, tribes might be subservient to religion, and religious groups might be subservient to nation, those factors in no particular order are at play.

Million other factors are at work. It's hard to say people should be one way because of their color. It's the same the world over.

Its like speaking about hispanics, from puerto rico, to mexico there is a lot of variety and we only generalize like that out of ignorance.

The same goes for Chinese, a collection of very different people.

Stick around here long enough and you'll get the impression "the Russians" are all the same. It couldn't be more wrong.

People are nuanced and generalizations like yours are just that.

What we know specifically is the US government has troops stationed and helping one of the most oppressive LGBT hating regimes on earth, the Ugandan government.

[Jesus Malverde]

6. Remember that AA community leaders were largely for prop. 8.

Most of California's Black Voters Backed Gay Marriage Ban

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/06/AR2008110603880.html

[ck4829]

3. Putting homophobia into the law requires a lot of authoritarianism, even a bit of totalitarianism

"We can stop the Homoconspiracy... but we have to allow the government to spy on your neighbors, encourage your children to report any deviant activities, and make sure newspapers and websites are saying the right things."

And now you have people who are outright cheering this on, and they refuse to see what is going on as they clutch their religious dogma and proclaiming that there is now... 'freedom'.

[Bluenorthwest]

5. I am slightly familiar with Dr Kaoma, and it is in general a good piece but he is far too self

serving when he states that religious leaders are 'sitting back in silence' about this. Fact is religious leaders in Uganda are using rhetoric as horrible as the politicians, this includes Catholic and Anglican Bishops as well as the Evangelical types. The Pope is silent about the horrible things his subordinates say in the name of Francis and his Church and so are US 'believers' but religious leaders in Uganda are actively participating in this pogrom. Kaoma needs to admit that. This is no time for parsing words to protect your pals, Dr.

[el_bryanto]

7. Well he is coming at from a different direction than you I suspect

I don't know necessarily if it's self serving (although he is a Reverend so I guess I can see that it could be). It could also be that he feels this tack is the best way to get people to pay attention.

Bryant

[Bluenorthwest]

8. I don't dig dishonesty out of those claiming to be honest. He's not being honest and his dishonesty

serves his community, which is in fact standing in pulpits telling parents to turn their gay children in to the police. He left that out, along with the calls for blood spilled and the elimination of all gays coming from Bishops of the RCC and Anglican Churches. He claims they did not say those things, that they are silent, when they are inciting murder. It is in my view not an ethical way to communicate.

[el_bryanto]

9. Well that's a pretty bleak way of looking at it.

I think he's looking at the problem more holistically than you, and I don't think he's being dishonest just because he doesn't hammer the churches the way you would like him to.

Bryant

[Bluenorthwest]

10. What he is saying is the opposite of the truth, he is lying to protect his own highly guilty peers.

He says they are silent. Here is just one quote from just one Bishop and there are many more.
“In Tororo District, Bishop Emmanuel Obbo, the Archbishop of Tororo Archdiocese, urged every citizen who supported the anti-homosexuality law to ‘put them to death and let generosity rise up within us and flow out in abundance."

He says they are silent, but they are in fact preaching from the pulpit 'put them to death'. Then there is the Bishop who is telling his flock to turn their gay children in to the police. That's not silence. To call it silence is to help tell the lies. Koama cares more about those doing wrong than those having wrong done to them. But that is what religion teaches I guess, Jesus just had it ass backwards as usual.

[el_bryanto]

11. This is the line you are talking about?

"Is it not immoral that our religious leaders sit back in silence as politicians compare our fellow human beings to dogs, vermin, leprosy, gonorrhea, bacteria and tuberculosis?"

That's the only line that references silence, so I assume that's the line that condemns him in your mind?

Bryant