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Proposed Antigay Ugandan Law Disastrous for NGOs

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"Just by recognizing gay rights, our organization could be accused of promoting homosexuality, and our staff could risk being imprisoned for three years."

This I was recently told by a contact whose charity works in Uganda. Desperately worried about whether the group will be able to continue with its important work, the source asked me not to identify the charity, a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on sexual and reproductive rights that operates a program in this landlocked, East African country. Yet the group's work is both more important and in greater danger than ever.

Under the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill rearing its twisted head in Uganda--one that calls for the death penalty for acts of "aggravated homosexuality--any corporate body, business, association, or non-governmental organization risks being stripped of its license to practice in the country. Directors risk seven-year prison sentences if they are involved in the so-called "promotion" or funding that "in any way abets homosexuality and related practices." In a country with nearly one million people living with HIV, Uganda's parliament is about to criminalize the very organizations that are there to help. And it may further criminalize a group of people who are already criminals in the eyes of the law.

But the NGOs would be affected by more than just the "promotion" clause. Under the proposed bill, anyone not reporting a known breach of the law within 24 hours faces a three-year sentence. Anyone with HIV engaging in gay sex, or having sex with someone under 18, or who is a serial offender (surely most gay people would, by their nature, be serial offenders) could be executed.

My anonymous NGO contact explained: "If you know someone who is having a same-sex relationship, then you are compelled by the law to report this. So if you are an HIV service provider and you know your client is a man who has sex with men, then you have to report him. If he slept with someone under 18, or is under 18, or is HIV-positive, what do you do? Do you pick up the phone and call the police? You could be signing that person's death warrant if you do, or risking prison if you do not." How can an NGO possibly operate in that atmosphere of justified fear?

My source also made another point, that even if the NGO doesn't campaign for change, but recognizes gay rights, then it may be ostracized by other NGOs involved in HIV prevention programs. For effective work against HIV, it is a widely recognized fact that the best practice involves building links with other groups working in the field and sharing knowledge, contacts and best practice information. "It will divide the HIV sector," the source said.

For years, Uganda has been held up as a model for how HIV prevention can work in Africa, having had incidence of infections fall until quite recently under the "ABC" method (Abstinence, Be faithful, use Condoms). The international HIV/AIDS charity AVERT reports that "frank and honest discussion of the causes of HIV infection seems to have been a very important factor [in the initial stabilizing of Uganda's HIV infection rates]." However, since 2006, there has been a slight rise in the infection rate. There are many reasons why this might be happening, but a likely contributing factor is the government's shift towards U.S.-influenced, conservative Christian-style programs centered on abstinence education, not safer sex practices.

But as far as NGOs go, this is about more than HIV. It's about gay people being able to safely go about their lives and forge their own identities.

One man on the ground, David Kato, who is a member of Sexual Minorities Uganda (a coalition of LGBT human rights organizations based in the country), recently spoke with me over a crackly long distance phone line. Much of the conversation was lost to the static on my phone, but one particularly stark phrase leapt out at me when I asked him what will be the implications for the proposed bill on his organization. "If the bill passes," he said, "within 24 hours they will be arresting people they know to be gay. People will go into hiding. Gay people will go further underground. Anyone who works advocating for gay rights will leave the country. " His organization will cease to be able to openly function. Democracy is the poorer for it.

If the Ugandan draft Anti-Homosexuality bill passes, it will be a calamity for organizations working in the country. It will be a disaster for gay people there. It will weaken Uganda's reputation in the view of the world - to join the small and select group of seven countries that have the death penalty on the statute books for homosexuality is a real mark of shame. To criminalize those who can help your society grow stronger and to turn back great work on HIV is nothing short of criminal.

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