Are we witnessing the Orbanization of Uganda? Of the African Continent? And who — besides the authoritarian right — does the criminalization of homosexuality benefit?
Uganda’s Parliament yesterday passed a bill that proposes life imprisonment for the “offence of homosexuality.” Further, it proposes up to 14 years for “attempted homosexuality” and the penalty of death for “aggravated homosexuality” — whatever that actually is, besides the absurd legal contortioning. This bill, which will not face a veto, categorically puts Uganda to the right of the Catholic Church with regards to LGBT rights. But it aligns perfectly with Victor Orban of Hungary’s love language, child groomer memes equating homosexuality with pedophilia. "Among others, such a law would violate the rights to freedom of expression and association privacy, equality, and nondiscrimination," Human Rights Watch noted today on its blog.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk urged Uganda’s President Museveni not to sign the bill into law, calling it “probably among the worst of its kind in the world.” From the Office of High Commissioner:
“If signed into law by the President, it will render lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other.”
But Museveni has his own nefarious uses for such a law. LGBT legislation is a very effective, if divisive, cultural wedge-issue when employed with a light touch by right-authoritarians, like Museveni. It distracts, perfectly, as the American Orbanist movement full well knows. We cannot fail to note that Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has been in power since 1986 and may either run for re-election in 2026, or prop up his son, the Don, Jr. of Kampala. The 78-year old head-of-state won his sixth term recently amid crackdowns by security forces on his opponent, the singer and anti-corruption advocate, Bobbi Wine. All unhappy right-authoritarians, it would appear, are more or less similar.
US Secretary of State Tony Blinken expressed customary American objections to the law, based on human rights:
Pew Research has some rather interesting polling on the matter. Although they haven’t released a more recent poll on the subject of The Global Divide on Homosexuality since June 2020, they have noted a sea-change in international public opinion between June 2013, when the question was first asked by the poll, and June 2020. In those seven years:
Many of the countries surveyed in 2002 and 2019 have seen a double-digit increase in acceptance of homosexuality. This includes a 21-point increase since 2002 in South Africa and a 19-point increase in South Korea over the same time period. India also saw a 22-point increase since 2014, the first time the question was asked of a nationally representative sample there.
There also have been fairly large shifts in acceptance of homosexuality over the past 17 years in two very different places: Mexico and Japan. In both countries, just over half said they accepted homosexuality in 2002, but now closer to seven-in-ten say this.
In Kenya, only 1 in 100 said homosexuality should be accepted in 2002, compared with 14% who say this now.
… But in sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, Russia and Ukraine, few say that society should accept homosexuality; only in South Africa (54%) and Israel (47%) do more than a quarter hold this view.
People in the Asia-Pacific region show little consensus on the subject. More than three-quarters of those surveyed in Australia (81%) say homosexuality should be accepted, as do 73% of Filipinos. Meanwhile, only 9% in Indonesia agree.
Influence in sub-Saharan Africa, we cannot fail to note, is one of Russia’s prime objectives. In Nigeria, an alarming 91% of those that responded to the Pew Poll said that homosexuality should not be accepted by society. This is why the Biden administration might want to consider very carefully domestic pressure to significantly decrease aid to sub-Saharan Africa — which may or may not occur — for such pieces of anti-LGBT legislation. As despicable as such legislation is, Russia would gladly pick up the difference in loss of American aid with no strings attached for human rights violations. Human rights, of course, mean little to nothing to power craving despots like Putin and, increasingly, Museveni. And, as the polling notes, Indonesia — the world's fourth most populous nation and 10th largest economy in terms of purchasing power parity — sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, the acceptance of homosexuality is still far off into the future.
The New Russia–China Nexus (Fareed Zakaria/ CNN Newsletter)
"Think semiconductors and other computer parts being traded from high-wage economies, like Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, China for final assembly to lower-wage economies, initially Malaysia and China and more recently Vietnam, with final products like TV sets, computers, and cell phones being shipped to consumers in the U.S., Europe, and Japan." (Brookings)
Reagan, Trump, and the Price of Presidential Impunity (Jeet Heer/The Nation)
Did Donald Trump break the Koch machine for good? (SEMAFOR)
Bing A.I. and the Dawn of the Post-Search Internet (TNY)
Lebanese take to streets as anger over economic meltdown grows (Al Jazeera)
TIKTOK IS THE hottest app on the planet—and the most-hated tech in Washington, DC. That disconnect has consumed the narrative around the app since CEO Shou Zi Chew took the helm of TikTok roughly two years ago." (WIRED)
Heidi Fleiss Drama in the Works at HBO Max (THR)
“Twice’s Chaeyoung issued an apology on Tuesday after she uploaded a photo of her wearing a t-shirt with a swastika symbol. This comes just days after the K-pop singer was seen performing in a QAnon shirt for the South Korean music television program ‘Show! Music Core.’” (Variety)
“‘Somehow I was unaware of this company called Sir-Tech Software,’ (Brenda) Romero says. “Which was tiny at that point in time, there were nine people.'" (NME)