Political and Legal Responses to Decriminalization

The conference assessed how Western diplomatic and aid efforts could be leveraged to promote the repeal of long standing laws that prohibit sodomy, as well as prevent further legislation such as a recently passed law in Malawi that outlawed lesbian sex.

"Never before in American foreign policy have the human rights of LGBT people been an open, unambiguous and clear foreign policy priority," U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy Human Rights and Labor Dan Baer declared at the gathering. Baer's keynote address, "Taking leadership to address LGBT human rights around the world" touted the Obama Administration's "strong and active" support for homosexual advocacy abroad, noting that about 80 countries criminalize some form of homosexual activity.

Quoting Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Baer announced that "gay rights are human rights and human rights are gay rights." The State Department official also quoted retired South African Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu in saying that "sexual orientation, like skin color, is a feature of our diversity."

Among other U.S. efforts, Baer named a directive from Clinton to all U.S. Ambassadors to report on homosexual rights in their respective countries. Baer also touted a successful U.S.-led effort to reinstate U.N. resolution language about sexual orientation after conservative member states had earlier removed the language.

"The use of religion to advocate for limitation on lives, rights, and freedoms of others, and those of other faiths, or those whose lives reflect other aspects of human diversity is a manipulation of faith that tragically disregards the same goodness that religion itself can bring to human existence," Baer concluded. Following his keynote, the U.S. official took questions and cited earlier decriminalization of homosexual acts in India as affecting the most people.

"I see decriminalization as the largest source of progress," Baer assessed.

"Fundamentalist assault on African culture"

Central to the premise of the conference was an assertion that homosexual acts do not violate traditional African values. Speakers claimed cultural resistance to homosexuality had been imposed by Anglican missionaries in the past and exacerbated recently by Western evangelicals "globalizing culture wars." By adopting such a narrative, conference organizers sought to deflect charges of neo-colonialism and interference with local African affairs, claiming that they were either countering earlier cultural damage from 19th century Europeans, or more recent missionary efforts originating in America.

Warning that there was a "fundamentalist assault on African culture," Bruce Knotts of the Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office warned of American "fundamentalist" clergy promoting "Nazi-like" policies around the world that restricted homosexual behavior and "Gestapo-like proposals" making parents and neighbors inform on those engaged in homosexual acts or themselves face penalties.

Knotts was one of several speakers who freely alternated between the terms "evangelical" and "fundamentalist," apparently seeing little or no distinction between the two.

"Our purpose today is to end the obscene laws that criminalize people because they live according to the nature to which they were born," the Unitarian Universalist official said. Knotts claimed that "fundamentalist evangelicals" had organized to share information on African LGBT activists and that this directly led to the murder of Ugandan activist David Kato, whose photograph appeared on the front page of a Ugandan tabloid under the text "Hang Them." International LGBT activists immediately suspected that Kato was murdered for his advocacy, but Ugandan authorities later arrested a laborer of Kato's who was described as in "a personal disagreement" with his employer.

Knotts listed opposition to proposed legislation sponsored by Ugandan Parliamentarian David Bahati as a key effort of the conferees. The statute has come under intense scrutiny and condemnation for a death penalty provision that would apply to knowingly HIV-positive individuals who rape a minor. While the death penalty provision has been removed, the bill has remained stalled in parliamentary committee for years. Regardless of the success or failure of the bill, Knotts maintained that Ugandan politicians were intent on enforcing anti-homosexual laws already in place, and other countries such as Nigeria were pursuing bills officially outlawing same-sex marriage.

African Advocacy

While most of the conference speakers were themselves American, several African LGBT and HIV activists also participated, echoing concerns about "state homophobia" and calling for Western financial support for small local activist groups.

"At the root of this is fundamentalism," assessed Val Kalende, a Ugandan activist and a postgraduate student at Episcopal Divinity School in Massachusetts. Kalende insisted that LGBT groups in Africa were underfunded, and that it was "impossible to continue this work if we don't have funding." Threateningly, the soft-spoken Kalende told of U.S. evangelical "money being used to promote hate in Uganda."

Kalende was joined in a panel discussion by deposed former Anglican Bishop Christopher Senyonjo, who operates a foundation and center in Kampala, Uganda ministering to homosexuals.

"We need decriminalization of LGBT all over the world," Senyonjo proclaimed. His St. Paul's Center for Reconciliation, only in operation for the past year, has already attracted tens of thousands of dollars from western LGBT groups, and receives half of its funding from the Elton John AIDS Foundation.

Conspiracy Theories

While "fundamentalist evangelicals" were derided for their alleged transgressions against homosexual tolerance in Africa, only a few individuals were directly named as perpetuators of a homosexual phobia. Charismatic Christian preacher and activist Lou Engle was cited by author Jeff Sharlet as telling Ugandans that they are "ground zero" in a war against sin, and that homosexual practices are at the top of that list. (Sharlet is a contributing editor to Rolling Stone and author in 2008 of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power.) Evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren, who has explicitly condemned the proposed anti-homosexuality legislation in Uganda, was implicated for reportedly telling a Ugandan audience that there were things he could tell them about homosexuality that he couldn't say in America. The nature of those things was left unspecified.

The bulk of blame at the conference fell upon "The Family," a loose umbrella group of Christian ministries that includes the Fellowship Foundation. Described in his keynote address as "the most influential Christian conservative organization in D.C." by Sharlet, the group is primarily known for its sponsorship of the annual Congressional Prayer Breakfast, and for owning a Capitol Hill house known as "C Street" where several members of Congress lived, some of whom later were embroiled in sex scandals. Sharlet explained that the organization remained quiet about its activities out of both attempted Christian humility and for effectiveness in working with elected officials.

"The Family never cared about sex, but it bubbles up," Sharlet asserted, claiming that connections with the group were a key inspiration for Bahati in authoring his legislation. During an interview with Bahati, Sharlet reports the Ugandan Parliamentarian said "let us find common ground, you are my brother." Sharlet concluded "We don't need to find common ground, this is missionary paternalism. This is not the time for common ground; a plantation is common ground."

Dominionism

The most prominently featured African speaker was the Rev. Dr. Kapya Kaoma. Formerly dean of a theological college in Zambia, the Anglican cleric writes for liberal religious watch dog Political Research Associates and now serves in the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts.

Kaoma boldly claimed the intention of the Christian right to take over all public space in America, citing the work of leftist American religious writer Frederick Clarkson. Asserting that a Pentecostal movement - the New Apostolic Reformation -- was "sacrificing the lives of others to score political points," Kaoma spoke about dominionists, conservative Christians the Anglican cleric charged seek to use art, entertainment, business and politics as means of control.

"The concept of dominionism is exported across Africa," Kaoma claimed, linking it with the spread of the prosperity gospel.

"Friends of the religious right in Africa partner with them because they see it as an opportunity to get rich," Kaoma forcefully stated, describing homosexual activists who struggled to make ends meet while local religious leaders drove Hummer SUVs.

"These African countries are at the forefront of teaching hatred," Kaoma warned, explaining that Africans could see homosexuality as a demon in need of casting out.

Kaoma authored a 2009 report alleging that North American church renewal organizations are manipulating African churches and exporting hostile views of homosexuality.

"Globalizing the Culture Wars: U.S. Conservatives, African Churches, and Homophobia" attempted to diagram a broad conspiracy between American church renewal organizations and African churches, depicting a highly centralized top-down structure headed by renewal groups such as the Institute on Religion and Democracy (IRD), prominent evangelicals such as Warren and theologically conservative African leaders in Nigeria and Uganda, among others.

END