Speaking out about homophobia in other cultures

By Adrian Tippetts

Last weekend, I met up with a few LGBT campaigners for coffee. In such a group of hotheads, small talk soon gave way to intense discussion on how to achieve greater equality. All was fine, until I brought up the name ‘Peter Tatchell’.

“Peter’s a divisive figure”, my discussion partner exclaimed. “His campaigning for gay rights in Africa smacks of colonialism. It comes across as a white man telling former dependencies what to do, and this will lead to more repression.”

How odd – no one has been more consistent and courageous in fighting for human rights and Tatchell’s record in opposing racism is as strong as his campaign against homophobia. But the disagreement we had reflects a discord about how to push for universal LGBT acceptance, as Western democracies take the lead in embracing tolerance, and equality for all. Others echo the opinion I countered such as Hannah Dee, who warns against interference by LGBT advocates in Zimbabwe in ‘The Red in the Rainbow’, her story of the fight for sexual liberation:

But it cannot be for activists in countries like Britain, with its long history of imperialist aggression and racism, to think we can lead struggles on behalf of people in other parts of the world.... If you are based in Zimbabwe, for example, where President Robert Mugabe denounces homosexuality as ‘un-African’, it does not help for any campaign to be led by people in Britain – the country most implicated in colonial and racist oppression of that country.    

Granted, Britain and other colonial powers have lots to answer for. Our nation certainly owes an apology for subjugating much of the world to slavery, and for leaching resources, arbitrarily creating state boundaries that lead to civil war, aiding and empowering religious extremists, imposing disastrous agricultural policies and forcing new nations into a cycle of crippling debt as a result of aid contracts. Incidentally, Britain and the USA have had a role in harbouring, funding and encouraging Islamist extremism to thwart democracy across the Muslim world since World War I, to protect trade interests and political influence. See Mark Curtis’ ‘Secret Affairs’ for this sorry tale.  

And while it is right for local activists to lead the campaign – the late David Kato is one example - the idea that we must stand silent is morally unconscionable.

Firstly, Mrs. Dee and others omit to say that the origin of homophobia is itself colonial. There is evidence that, before the conquest of Africa, homosexuality was an accepted part of life. White, British missionaries sowed the seeds of hatred by spreading the Judaeo-Christian Word, and penal codes that enshrined Victorian mores into law. The vicious anti-gay hate movements that are sweeping the continent are the consequences.

That colonial influence is alive and well today, but comes not so much from Britain as from American Evangelical fundamentalists. It is often forgotten that Uganda’s campaign against gay people and its attempt to make homosexuality a capital offence, followed months of lobbying and conferences by extremist groups such as the ex-gay ministry Exodus International and the notorious ‘Pink Swastika’ holocaust revisionist Scott Lively. A conference in Kampala, organised by Evangelicals, and attended by Ugandan government ministers, blamed Rwandan genocide on the gay rights movement, and links emerged between a secretive Washington religious lobby group, ‘The Family’ and the author of the ‘Kill the Gays’ bill, David Bahati. There is still a British connection to all of this though. Guess who is out in Kenya, launching his ‘Save Africa from Sodomy’ campaign and stirring up homophobia in the African and Caribbean media  in an attempt to prevent any relaxation of anti-gay laws? None other than Stephen Green, the rabid preacher from ‘Christian Voice’ who thinks gay men should be put to death.  The campaign against homophobia, therefore, is a campaign against colonialism of a very powerful and dangerous Christian dominionism.

Secondly, to stay silent in such matters, for fear of appearing ‘colonialist’ is racist because it requires us to take skin colour into account when we decide how to tackle hate and oppression. To call people out on what they say and what they do is to accept that everyone is capable of equal good.  And by failing to call out bigotry consistently just because a leader is black, we smother the voices of the oppressed.

Some are hesitant to speak out because they fear it might be perceived as imposing ‘Western’ values on developing nations. But the desire to be free, to achieve self-determination, to fall in love with whom one chooses is universal to all humans. There is nothing extraordinary about people from the West: civilisation simply took off, as Jared Diamond explains in Guns Germs and Steel, because our ancestors could domesticate suitably energy-rich animals and crops and create a complex society.

Even if the West is slightly ahead of other regions in extinguishing organised homophobia, so what? Distant descendants may well be wondering, how we let such nonsense fester for millennia, and for the most absurd of reasons.  

There is a rising tide of hatred against LGBT people across Africa and the Middle East. We must put the plight of the victims first and relentlessly expose, condemn and oppose hatred wherever we see it - lives and freedom are at stake. We can take no other path, and must certainly not exonerate oppressors on account of their skin colour. It’s as simple as that.