Uganda | Dangerous claims that LGBTQ+ people are “recruiting” schoolchildren

Government officials and religious leaders are stirring up anti-queer hysteria in Uganda by perpetuating the false, ignorant and dangerous claim that LGBTQ+ people in the country are “recruiting” children.

Annet Kezaabu, the chairperson of the Anti-Pornographic Control Committee at the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity, has reportedly warned that members of the LGBTQ+ community are targeting schools to “recruit, groom and initiate” children into homosexuality.

According to the overwhelmingly uncritical Ugandan media, she claimed that these children are “recruited” into this “vice” through gifts and money offered to them by LGBTQ+ people.

Kezaabu’s claims echo those of Church of Uganda Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba Mugalu that were included in his Christmas message, recently delivered in Kampala.

“I want to alert all students, parents, and teachers that there are bad people trying to attract children into homosexuality by promising them money and sponsorship,” said Mugalu.

“To those who are recruiting children into homosexuality, I want to sound a very strong warning to you. These are not my words, but the words of Jesus: ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones…to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea,’” he asserted.

Mugalu called on the government “to set up a simple system whereby children can report these people to the relevant authorities who can investigate and take appropriate action”.

In a response to the archbishop’s deeply irresponsible words, Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocate, Dr Frank Mugisha, wrote that the Anglican cleric was scapegoating LGBTQ+ people.

This ‘homophobic’ slur not only threatens but also puts this already vulnerable community in mortal danger

“It’s no surprise that these attacks come at the tail end of the year when churchgoers are supposed to be asking for the annual accountability. Queer people would be the perfect red-herring as the subject is evocative of both ignorance and emotion. Ideally, it’s a go-to for anyone who is seeking a public relations re-birth,” said Mugisha.

He noted that Mugalu’s sentiments “are not merely words of any Tom, Dick, or Harry. They are selectively chosen words by a person in a position of authority who commands so much influence.”

Mugisha added: “This ‘homophobic’ slur not only threatens but also puts this already vulnerable community in mortal danger.”

The belief that LGBTQ+ people are predators of children is used to demonise and persecute the queer community. It is based on the erroneous belief that homosexuality is a deviant learned behaviour that can be “taught” to others. (Homosexuality is, in fact, a romantic and sexual attraction that is innate to some individuals and is a normal variation of human sexuality.)

This narrative, widely promoted by right-wing American religious groups in Africa, also paints efforts to secure equal human rights for LGBTQ+ people as a global conspiracy to “corrupt” and “recruit” children.

It’s this misguided and unquestioned thinking that has helped make Uganda one of the world’s most authoritarian nations when it comes to the LGBTQ+ community. Colonial-era legislation criminalising same-sex intimacy allows the state to punish anyone found guilty of the “offence” with life in prison.

The country’s Parliament has repeatedly attempted to enact even more oppressive anti-LGBTQ+ laws but these efforts have so far failed. In August last year, the authorities shut down the operations of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a leading LGBTQ+ rights group in the country.