Uganda’s anti-gay law has huge costs; Thailand’s equal marriage pays dividends
Anti-LGBT laws come with huge financial costs, business group warns
As Uganda experiences diplomatic, trade, and aid penalties over its anti-LGBTQ laws, the financial cost of these policies is stacking up. In the below report from the Devex news service, a business-focused LGBTQ advocacy group throws into stark relief the cost of homophobia.
Hefty price tag of homophobia
BY ELISSA MIOLENE
In May 2023, Uganda implemented an anti-LGBTQ+ law that rocked the nation. Aside from the life imprisonment it imposed — along with the death penalty for what Uganda referred to as “aggravated homosexuality” — it also cost the country up to $1.6 billion in a single year, according to research from coalition group Open for Business.
“There were so many very tangible costs that came in very quickly,” the organization’s CEO, Dominic Arnall, tells me. “That’s between 3% and 5% of its GDP.”
The World Bank ceased new loans to Uganda. The United States withdrew Uganda’s African Growth and Opportunity Act, or AGOA, status. And there was also a hit to business, tourism, and talent, Arnall says, all with an economic cost.
“Countries with low levels of LGBTQ+ inclusion tend to experience higher levels of brain drain,” Arnall says. “That means young people leaving the country.”
On the other hand, Arnall described how Thailand — which became the first country in Southeast Asia to recognize same-sex marriage last June — has used that change to make a “very explicit play for LGBTQ+ tourism.”
“They’ve made very clear that they want to appeal to this community, that they know it brings money into the country,” he says.
Trouble in Uganda
That’s not the only trouble afoot in Uganda, a country that for years has been considered a darling of the development world. UNAIDS Executive Director Winnie Byanyima shared an update on her husband with Devex, describing how his case is part of a broader nationwide pattern to silence political opposition.
Kizza Besigye was taken into detention last November. Besigye has contested and lost four presidential elections against Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, who has been in power since 1986. But in 2024, Besigye formed a new political party — the People’s Front for Freedom — and now, he faces trial in military court.
While civilian courts have repeatedly found her husband innocent, he’s now facing a military tribunal that reports directly to Museveni as army commander. Things took an even darker turn when the president’s son, in a now-deleted social media post, announced plans for her husband’s execution. The country, which came under Museveni’s leadership through armed revolution, has yet to experience a peaceful transfer of power.
Even so, Byanyima [says] she’s remaining optimistic.
“I feel supported by a movement of pro-democracy and pro human rights actors,” she says.
