On February 24, a few days after the NRM parliamentary caucus retreat at
the National Leadership Institute (NALI), Kyankwanzi, President Yoweri Museveni
signed into law the controversial anti-homosexuality bill as he had assured the
MPs while in Kyankwanzi. Very many Ugandans gave the president accolades for
the job well done; to almost all Ugandans, Museveni was viewed as a saviour and
some of my elite friends who have for more than a decade been opposed to
Museveni vowed to vote him come 2016 elections. I realised that sentimental
excitement shrouds very many of us from making plausible analysis.
Before I learnt that there are some people who genetically have hormones
that make them homosexual, I was very critical of homosexuals and some people
would even label me homophobic never mind that I have often professed to be a
human rights defender. I was later to learn that we have people who naturally
are attracted to people of their sex. While I do not believe that homosexuality
is a human right, the truth is that since time immemorial, we have always had
homosexuals.
In my opinion, we need to analyse and not moralise if we are to fully
comprehend the homosexuality question. While we have people who are
recruited into homosexuality – which I am utterly opposed to, we also have
people who are innately homosexual. My belief is that those who are innately
homosexual are abnormal or unconventional but we have them. Must we enact laws
to criminalise people who are abnormal? I do not think it is prudent nor is it
fair. I am also immensely aware that a law cannot solve the abnormality.
Instead, it will be viewed by people in various quarters as obnoxious,
draconian and an affront on human rights. Accordingly, since we have men who
are naturally attracted to men, we must devise means of helping them not
persecuting them.
While I do not at all believe that homosexuality is a human right,
homosexuals just like any other deviants or even perverts have rights to
privacy, freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment,
they are entitled to non-discrimination and so forth. If the law targeted the
promoters of homosexuality (which we find reprehensible in our society), I
would gladly welcome it.
I can state without any fear of contradiction that the anti-homosexuality
law will be one of the leading redundant laws without any enforcement means.
How for instance shall we get the homosexuals who do their thing in the privacy
of the bedrooms? Is the state going to patrol and police people’s bedrooms in
search of homosexuals? How shall we ensure that the real or perceived opponents
of the powers that be are not charged with the offence of homosexuality and
ultimately thrown in jail? On concealment of homosexuality, how shall the state
prove that one is concealing homosexuality?
While I have stated that I do not believe that homosexuality just like
fornication is not a human right worth promoting, we have no right to infringe
the privacy of anybody on mere suspicion that they are homosexuals, in any case
catching people in the act red-handed is next to impossible. Because of diverse
reasons including but not limited to excruciating levels of poverty, we have so
many same sex people sharing bedrooms and even beds, should the state suspect
them to be homosexuals? My honest view is that people cannot and shouldn’t be
subjected to torture, discrimination and persecution on the basis of their real
or perceived sexual orientation.
While I feel it was wrong to enact the Anti-homosexuality Act, the
Western countries have also proven to be lopsided in their “crusade for human
rights”. Are homosexuals more human than the opposition politicians and
activists who have always been brutally treated with some killed by the regime
in their activities? I know now whoever wants a visa to become an economic
migrant will claim to either be a homosexual or pro-gay activist.
While many people are still excited by the enactment of the law, it is
diversionary, populist and the president assented to it for political
expediency. It was a trade-off for the seventh term green light offered to him
by the NRM MPs in Kyankwanzi. It was a case of scratch my back, I scratch
yours. Meanwhile the exaggerated euphoria of the enactment of the law has
diverted our attention from corruption, graduate unemployment, poor quality and
unfunded “Universal Primary Education (UPE) and Universal Secondary Education
(USE), a collapsing healthcare system, sectarianism and the atrocities that the
President recently conceded were committed by the National Resistance Army
(NRA) among others. I am worried that President Museveni may choose to use
2014/2015 revenue collections to fund his and his party’s 2016 campaigns as we
celebrate the Anti-homosexuality Act.
Vincent Nuwagaba is a human rights scholar and defender.
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