The West fiddles while Uganda prepares a future of anti-LGBTQ horrors

A Marshall Plan for LGBTQ+ people is needed.

A supporter of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni celebrates after Museveni was declared the winner of the 2021 presidential election. Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into law in May 2023. (Nicholas Bamulanzeki photo courtesy of AP)

“A sign of horrors to come.”
“The dehumanization of homosexual citizens.”
LGBTQ+ people continuing to be “ostracized from our communities, kicked out of our homes, unable to make a living, and condemned to a short life of trauma, shame, and fear”.
Potential capital punishment for every LGBTQ+ person from the CEO of Apple and the prime minister of France to Elton John and Drew Barrymore.

That’s what the Ugandan Constitutional Court’s decision in favor of the Anti-Homosexuality Act means to Fabrice Houdart, executive director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors.

Yet the world hasn’t taken seriously the growing threats to LGBTQ+ people, Houdart writes.

“Things are going to have to change,” he states. “We need an actual Marshall Plan for LGBTQ+ people or risk facing first a tsunami of pink migration and, eventually, maybe worse, attempts at exterminating homosexuals.”

Below is today’s commentary from Houdart’s weekly newsletter on LGBTQ+ Equality. Click here to subscribe.

Cartoon courtesy of Spire Ssentongo — Cartoon by Spire Ssentongo

Uganda Supreme Court Upholds the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023

Calling for a Marshall Plan for LGBTQ+ people

COMMENTARY

By Fabrice Houdart

As they read the news this morning, many will make light of Uganda’s Supreme Court decision to uphold the [Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023, or AHA] as an inevitable “backlash” that we, gay people, brought onto ourselves, a sign of cultural differences, or worse, an inconsequential piece of news in a world that has bigger fish to fry.

But make no mistake; it is another nail in the cross; it is yet again the triumph of evil over justice and a sign of horrors to come.

For gay Ugandans, it is the end of the road with only two options left: despair or migration. The wealthiest, those with diplomas or family connections, will inevitably go, and the poorest will bear the brunt of Uganda’s “open season on queer people.”

When Deputy Chief Justice Richard Buteera said this morning in Kampala, “We decline to nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act in its totality,” he endorsed the dehumanization of homosexual citizens.

Drew Barrymore, who is bisexual, would be at risk of capital punishment under the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act, as would Apple CEO Tim Cook, French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, Elton John, and U.S. Senator Tami Baldwin. (Photo courtesy of Fox News)

The AHA’s “The offender is a serial offender” refers to Tim Cook, Apple’s CEO; Gabriel Attal, France’s Prime Minister; US Senator Tami Baldwin; Elton John; or the actress Drew Barrymore. According to Ugandan law, they are all repeat offenders, and as such, they potentially would all be subject to capital punishment in Uganda.

Once again, we find ourselves “worse than dogs and pigs,” “intrinsically disordered,”and a danger to family, traditions, and children. The courts sully our good name. We are ostracized from our communities, kicked out of our homes, unable to make a living, and condemned to a short life of trauma, shame, and fear.

And it’s not only in Uganda. In Ghana, a worse bill has been hanging like a Damocles sword on gay people’s heads since 2018. In Kenya and Iraq, similar bills are lurking. In Russia, gay people are terrorists. In China, we are hidden from public view.

Last night, I watched a video conference on the Ghana Bill supported by a PowerPoint presentation of all things. The presenter, Edem Senanu, Chair of Advocates for Christ Ghana, said about homosexuality that it presented “Not one single benefit, except probably a unique thing of 5 minutes of sexual pleasure for a minority, not one benefit to the collective but seven negatives” paving the way for our extermination.

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98% of Senegalese, 93% of Ghanaians, 91% of Ugandans, and 80% of Africans say “would strongly dislike” or “would somewhat dislike” having a gay neighbor (Afrobarometer, 2021). That makes it easy for unscrupulous politicians to manipulate homophobia for political or geopolitical gains.

Whose fault is this?

Not that of gay people. It is linked to colonization. The relentless work of the Church, and now evangelicals, to marginalize us. The human rights framework being constantly undermined since its creation. But equally detrimental, LGBTQ+ people have been increasingly used as geopolitical tools by both the West and the Global South and East lately. Yet, the West has only invested symbolically in LGBTQ+ people’s rights and livelihoods abroad. The Global Philanthropy Project (GPP) estimates in its annual report that support for LGBTQ+ people represented $576 million for 2019-2020, a slight increase from prior years, yet only 0.04% of the total ODA [Official Development Assistance], with private foundations continuing to pick up a third of the tab.

Change in societal attitudes on LGBTQ+ issues has a price tag, which isn’t half a billion dollars. France, as an example, despite exemplary rhetoric at the UN podium, has not spent a penny to support LGBTQ+ people abroad. When the Quai d’Orsay [the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs] is asked, it refers to its EU contributions. France’s contribution to the Global Equality Fund represents a few grand, and its development agency is not implementing even one development targeting LGBTQ+ people abroad. As for the European Union, it declined to impose sanctions on Uganda.

The private sector, too, has been rushing into pink-washing schemes where, for a few thousand dollars, you can obtain an “LGBTQ+-friendly sticker” without having to take any stance when egregious human rights violations against our community happen, as I pointed out in a Fortune article last week.

And true, the most privileged gay people have shown little solidarity. They are enjoying their new “honorary straight” status without looking twice at the suffering of their brothers and sisters abroad. Only 356 donors gave more than $25,000 to the cause in 2022. I can count more gay multi-millionaires on my LinkedIn profile. Yet, the Movement Advancement Project (MAP)shows that the top 36 LGBTQ+ NGOs in the US still had revenues of $386 million in 2022, almost none of which was dedicated to programs abroad. GLAAD’s CEO tripled her salary in the past eight years while support for LGBTQ+ people dipped in the country.

In the the Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), the United States spent $13.3 billion -- about $150 billion in today's dollars -- to rebuild Western European democracies after the end of World War II. — In the Marshall Plan, officially known as the European Recovery Program (ERP), the United States spent $13.3 billion — about $150 billion in today’s dollars — to rebuild Western European democracies after the end of World War II.

Well, the sh*t has hit the fan today. Things are going to have to change. In a connected world, the gap between countries in which you can incur capital punishment for being gay and countries where LGBTQ+ families are protected and supported is unsustainable. We need an actual Marshall Plan for LGBTQ+ people or risk facing first a tsunami of pink migration and, eventually, maybe worse, attempts at exterminating homosexuals.

Fabrice Houdart, the author of this commentary, is the executive director of the Association of LGBTQ+ Corporate Directors, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and Columbia University, and a former staff member of the World Bank and of the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.