US evangelicals had a hand in Uganda’s revived “Kill the Gays” bill

Last week, Uganda’s Parliament passed what is being called one of the most extreme anti-LGBTQ+ bills in the world. If signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, the legislation would impose a life sentence for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex “activities” and would make some forms of “aggravated homosexuality” punishable by the death penalty.

As U.S. officials, including U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, condemn the bill, others have pointed to the role of American anti-LGBTQ+ religious groups in setting the stage for such legislation.

“A slate of proselytizing, activist U.S. religious groups have for years campaigned in parts of Africa, especially in countries like Uganda, and sown the seeds for even more hard-line measures there,” wrote Washington Post foreign affairs columnist Ishaan Tharoor in a recent op-ed.

As Tharoor notes, London-based OpenDemocracy found that close to half of the $54 million spent between 2007 and 2020 by American religious organizations advocating against LGBTQ+ rights in Africa was spent in Uganda alone. They use that money to..

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