Meet the Activist Series: Voices on the Ground

Astraea’s Meet the Activist series helps cultivate an informed base of supporters globally. Director of Programs, Mai Kiang, said, “The series provides a forum for our grantee partners to speak directly about their work and dialogue with supporters. These first-person accounts provide an in-depth look at the issues and bring together people who might otherwise never connect.” One recent Meet the Activist event, held simultaneously in Astraea’s office and via telecast, highlighted Colombia and another featured Uganda. The two events emphasized the truly global nature of the struggle for LGBTI human rights.

Colombia

Marcela Sánchez Buitrago

Meet the Activist: Colombia featured Marcela Sánchez Buitrago, of grantee partner Colombia Diversa. Marcela spoke of a contradictory climate. Colombia’s constitution purports to provide equal rights for all, and there are legal footholds to make progress toward this goal.However, areas of the country are rife with armed conflict, and LGBTI people face stereotyping in the media, hate violence and attacks from religious fundamentalists. Five years ago, when these fundamentalists first marched against homosexuality, Marcela said, “It was unbelievable that one group would march against another.”

Despite the challenges, in 2009, Colombia Diversa won a legal victory extending civil union benefits to same-sex couples for the first time. With Astraea’s support over the last five years, the organization has developed a national reach, mobilizing large-scale policy change through human rights monitoring, advocacy, community organizing and litigation.

However, “as LGBT rights increase, the incidence of violence against us increases as well. Precisely for our work for visibility, we become visible targets,” explained Marcela. Thus, cultural change is essential to maintaining legal progress and rolling back or preventing hateful legislation. To accomplish this, Colombia Diversa is strengthening alliances with other social movements and combating stereotypes in the media and in schools, using its groundbreaking research and informational materials.

Uganda

Attendees of Meet the Activist: Uganda heard first-hand accounts of the intensified anti-gay rhetoric fueled by Western religious fundamentalists. Frank Mugisha, of grantee partner Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG); Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, of Political Research Associates; and Rev. Patricia Ackerman, of the Unitarian Universalist UN Office, provided context for the recent international uproar over the now-tabled Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Rev. Patricia Ackerman, of the Unitarian Universalist UN Office; Frank Mugisha, of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG); and Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma, of Political Research Associates

The speakers characterized the bill as a distraction from real issues affecting Ugandans and spoke of the difficulties of securing human rights in a country with an equal rights bill that “grants minorities rights only if the majority accepts.” Rev. Ackerman explained, “Martin Ssempa [an infamous fundamentalist pastor in Uganda] is on the radio all the time whipping up hatred and scapegoating gay people for everything: lack of jobs, lack of money, problems with children, problems with marriages; every conceivable thing is the fault of the gay person. So you have grandmothers get up and vow that the first gay person they see, they will beat up.”

Frank Mugisha spoke of his visit to the parents of an imprisoned gay man, whose address was reported in the newspaper. Frank said, “They told me that they used to give homosexuals special names. They never used to beat them up or harass them, until the religious groups started their propaganda, saying, ‘homosexuals are recruiting,’ ‘homosexuals are molesting your children.’ Before, of course, homosexuals were different, but throughout the African culture, they would have their special places in society. But now, it is very harsh for everyone who is a sexual minority.”

Rev. Kaoma spoke about his groundbreaking undercover report, published by Public Research Associates, that blew the cover off of the Western religious fundamentalist infiltration into Ugandan culture and politics. “I discovered that Western evangelicals have enormous power and access in Africa. They can just walk into the office of the president in the name of Jesus,” said Rev. Kaoma. “One thing people don’t understand about African politics is that Africa was once a colonized continent. In the U.S., Scott Lively [a holocaust-denier and U.S. mega-church crusader] said, ‘What influence could I, a little person, have had over the entire Parliament of Uganda?’ And I said, ‘What were you doing with them for all those hours?’ It’s because of the colonial aspect that he is able to access this.”

To fight back, LGBTI Ugandans formed a coalition with other civil society groups to expose the human rights and health consequences of the bill.

Rev. Kaoma calls on Westerners to expose the hypocrisy of Western fundamentalist leaders who propagate hate in Uganda and then deny their statements in the U.S. He explained, “The very same arguments that were once used in America are the same arguments now being used by African pastors against LGBT persons.”

Despite the false claims that LGBTI people are somehow new to Africa, the story of the rural parents who remember a time when LGBTI people had a respected place in society confirms that what has actually been imported into Africa is hate, not homosexuality.