Uganda’s anti-gay bill is the latest and worst to target LGBTQ Africans

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has signed one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality", in defiance of Western condemnations and potential sanctions from aid donors.

Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as they are in more than 30 African countries, but the new law further targets lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

More than half Africa’s 54 nations prohibit consensual same-sex activity, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).

Somalia’s penal code mandates a prison sentence of up to 3 years, but the death penalty may be imposed under sharia law. Similarly, the Nigerian penal code mandates a 14-year jail sentence, but the death penalty may be applied in the 12 northern states under sharia. Mauritania’s laws also include the death penalty, but according to the U.N. there has been no record of executions since 1987.

In Egypt, homosexuality is not a crime but gay men are frequently arrested and charged with debauchery, immorality or blasphemy.

While there has been progress in some African nations to decriminalise same-sex relationships, public opinion polls show overall Africans' attitudes toward LGBTQ people starkly contrast those in other countries where homosexuality has been more widely accepted.

Currently, 129 countries worldwide have legally affirmed LGBTQ identities, according to ILGA. An increasing trend of acceptance has been driven in part by younger people who have adopted more accepting views toward homosexuality. A 2019 study by Pew Research Centre found that in 22 of 34 countries surveyed worldwide, people aged 18-29 were significantly more likely than their older peers to accept LGBTQ people in society.

However, in African nations there is little difference between younger and older opinions on homosexuality. In a poll by Afrobarometer of 48,000 people across 34 countries, more than 75% of respondents across all ages said they would strongly or somewhat dislike having a gay neighbour. The difference between the youngest age group, 18-25 years old, and the oldest, 56 and older, was just 3 points.

Comparatively, more than 80% of the same respondents were much more likely to be tolerant of people from other social groups.

In 2014-15, Afrobarometer also asked respondents how they would feel about having a neighbour who had HIV/AIDS – 70.5% said they would like it or wouldn’t care.

The colonial legacy of anti-LGBTQ laws

One explanation for Africa's modern anti-LGBTQ attitudes is the lingering influence of colonial-era laws. A 2014 study by researchers at the University of Reading found former British colonies were “overwhelmingly more likely to have laws that criminalise homosexuality.”

The legal system the British implemented in its African colonies was adapted from penal codes first established in India and Queensland, which included the anti-sodomy Section 377. By the time the UK legalised same-sex acts in Britain in 1967, many former colonies had gained independence and did not inherit the legal change.

According to Human Rights Watch, of the 17 African countries colonised by the British that had anti-LGBTQ laws, only 3 have since struck them down.

But not all of Africa's current status can be explained by colonial legacy. Former French colonies fell under the jurisdiction of the French Penal Code of 1791, laws that were centuries ahead of other Europeans in decriminalising consensual same-sex activity.

However, several former French colonies have passed anti-homosexuality laws after gaining independence, including Algeria, Cameroon, Mauritania and most recently Chad, which banned same-sex acts between men and women in 2017.

A more contemporary influence, according to gay rights campaigners, has been foreign anti-LGBTQ religious groups. An earlier Ugandan bill, known as the “kill the gays” bill for initially proposing hanging homosexuals, was introduced after a March 2009 conference in Kampala that hosted representatives from the U.S. “ex-gay” movement, including prominent anti-gay evangelical Scott Lively.

Ugandan LGBTQ rights activists filed a civil complaint against Lively in the United States, alleging he incited the persecution of LGBTQ people in Uganda, violating international law. A judge dismissed the case because the alleged activity occurred outside U.S. jurisdiction but said Lively aided “a vicious and frightening campaign of repression against LGBTI people in Uganda.”

Some countries also use sharia to outlaw LGBTQ activity.

Countries where being LGBTQ is legal

It is currently legal to be gay in 22 African countries, according to ILGA’s database summarising laws about same-sex activity.

In 1993, Guinea-Bissau became the first African country to legalise LGBTQ activity when it adopted a new Penal Code that didn’t include any laws criminalising it. Since then, nine other countries have followed suit and made it legal – most recently, Angola in 2021.

Beyond legalising LGBTQ identities and same-sex acts, a handful of countries also have constitutional or legal protections in place against employment discrimination, hate crimes, incitement to violence and other forms of discrimination.

South Africa is the only African country to allow LGBTQ couples to marry, enter civil unions and adopt children.

In the 12 countries that have never adopted laws criminalising homosexuality, it is de facto legal to be gay. However LGBTQ people in those countries still face homophobic discrimination.

In the 2019-2021 Afrobarometer surveys, respondents in countries where homosexuality is de facto legal were just as likely to say they would dislike having a gay neighbour as respondents in countries where it is criminalised.

Even among the countries that have officially decriminalised same-sex activities, respondents from Gabon and Lesotho were just as likely to say they would dislike having a gay neighbour.

Even in countries that hold the most tolerant views towards gay people, anti-LGBTQ violence still occurs. In South Africa, where respondents were among the most likely to hold tolerant views on homosexuality and where gay people have some of the most broad legal protections in Africa, cases of homophobic violence are well documented.

An international backlash to Uganda’s proposed anti-homosexualty law has continued to grow.

A coalition of international companies, including Google and Microsoft, has warned the proposed law would directly damage Uganda's economy by reducing foreign investment and tourism. A White House spokesperson said the bill represents one of the most extreme actions taken against the LGBTQ community anywhere in the world, and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk said it “will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are”.

“World leaders should put pressure on Museveni to not sign the bill because it's not only a Ugandan issue, it is an African continent issue,” Ugandan LGBTQ rights activist and photographer Papa De DeLovie Kwagala told Reuters at a protest against the Ugandan bill in Pretoria, South Africa.

“Queer people don't owe anyone anything, but we also deserve to live just like everyone else.”