BLMP condemns Uganda most recent Anti-Homosexuality Bill

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BLMP

4 min readMar 25, 2023

March 23, 2023

The Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project (BLMP) fully condemns the passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill by the Ugandan Parliament and join the global demands for President Museveni to withhold consent to this dangerous bill and protect the human rights of all LGBTQIA+ Ugandans, their loved ones, and communities.

BLMP stands in solidarity with the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) organization and with all LGBTQIA+ Ugandans in this shocking moment of state- sanctioned violence and blatant violation of human rights.

“ What we’re seeing unfold in Uganda with the Parliaments’s harmful passing of the strictest and most extreme Anti-LGBTQ law is an expansion of the “Kill the Gays” bill that passed in 2014. This bill is a direct consequence of anti-Black, Western Imperialism injected into the Global South by the United States and other Western nations. As we fight for the rights of Black LGBTQIA+ people inside the United States against Neo-fascist right-wing U.S politicians and violent legislation, our siblings are fighting those same U.S ‘evangelicals” vilifying their existence and exporting genocidal legislation. “

Oluchi Omeoga, BLMP Co-Executive Director

BLMP recognizes the central role that the United States and western imperialism play in the targeted violence and forced migration of Black LGBTQIA+ people. This most recent anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda is a stark example of this.

The homophobic and transphobic laws utilized by these African nations were grandfathered from penal codes that were established by Western colonial powers. Western imperialism is a direct push factor that forces Black LGBTQIA+ people to migrate and we see that very clearly all over the world. We see this with the LGBTQIA+ people, mostly fleeing Uganda, facing extreme violence inside of Kakuma Refugee Camp in Kenya. We see this in Tijuana at the United States/ Mexico border with thousands of Haitian and Jamaican people fleeing their homelands to avoid persecution for their identities.

The Black LGBTQIA+ Migrant Project continues to envision and struggle towards a world where no one is forced to give up their homeland and where all Black LGBTQIA+ people are free and liberated.

A world where all Black people and our loved ones have housing, bodily autonomy, health, and the ability to move and travel freely, with dignity, free of criminalization, anti-Black racism, misogyny, and all forms of transphobia and homophobia.

Demands Uplifted from Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG):

We, the Conveners for Equality (CFE) therefore; Condemn the AB in no uncertain terms and in its entirety as a hate Bill. We call on everyone to walk the talk of ‘UBUNTU’, democracy, human rights, constitutionalism, and equality for, every Ugandan.
We also call on President HE. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa to withhold his assent to the Bill as it will fuel hate, harassment, violence and abuse for gender and sexual minorities.
We call upon the Rules and Procedures Committee of Parliament, chaired by the Speaker of Parliament, to revisit the procedure used to hastily pass the AHB, to redress the anomalies and bad precedent set.
We call upon the media to understand that there is a clear distinction between consensual same-sex adult relations and sexual abuse of children and not to amplify baseless propaganda that promotes harm and capital punishments for gender and sexual minorities.
We call upon the Uganda security agencies and Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) to urgently request the general public to desist from circulating hate speech and calls for violence and mob justice against gender and sexual minorities as this will only lead to a genocide towards a section of law abiding citizens.
We call on the Biden Administration to uphold its foreign policy priority of advancing the freedoms and rights of all LGBT people and call on President H.E. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni Tibuhaburwa not to assent to this draconian Bill, lest Uganda face consequences from the US government and the rest of the international community.
The CFE stands firm in its commitment to uphold the rights of all and encourages all those who believe that constitutionalism provides one of the strongest guarantees of individual freedoms and social health to join us in rejecting the bill.