CANADA'S REFUSAL TO ALLOW UGANDAN LGBT ACTIVISTS INTO THE COUNTRY
SPEAKS TO A WIDER HYPOCRISY
By Muna Mire May 29 2014
A contingent of Ugandan LGBT activists were recently denied visitor
visas to attend World Pride 2014, which will be held in Toronto this
summer. The move comes as a surprise given the Canadian government's
strong, condemnatory stance on Uganda's repressive regime
criminalizing homosexuality.
The contingent of activists comprised of ten men and women who are all
currently risking their lives in the fight for LGBT rights on the
ground in Uganda—were invited to a human rights conference at the
University of Toronto taking place June 25-27. Just one member of the
contingent, keynote speaker Dr. Frank Mugisha, a highly prominent
advocate and a 2014 nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize, is able to come
to Canada on a multiple-entry visa he had been issued for previous
travels.
Brenda Cossman, conference co-chair, told the Toronto Star that it
remains critical to the global solidarity movement that the contingent
be able to attend the World Pride human rights conference. The
conference wants to hear from the delegation so that effective
allyship is possible from abroad.
"We are at risk of losing their voices," said Cossman.
Dr. Mugisha is a lawyer and the executive director of Sexual
Minorities Uganda (SMUG), an umbrella NGO that describes itself as
aiming "to liberate LGBT in Uganda." SMUG is a network of
organizations serving LGBT people across Uganda that came about in
2004, including smaller organizations like Icebreakers Uganda (serves
LGBT Ugandans who are in the process of coming out), Spectrum Uganda
(focuses on the health and well being of LGBT Ugandans), and the
Transgender Initiative Uganda.
Mugisha was close friends and colleagues with the former advocacy
officer at SMUG, David Kato. Kato, considered a father of the Ugandan
LGBT rights movement and "Uganda's first openly gay man" was murdered
in January 2011 shortly after successfully suing a tabloid for
publishing the names, photos, and addresses of 100 suspected LGBT
Ugandans with the order to "hang them." Several people on the list
were viciously attacked, and many went into hiding afterwards.
Mugisha is himself the plaintiff in a lawsuit brought by SMUG and
supported by the Centre for Constitutional Rights, against American
evangelical Scott Lively and Abiding Truth Ministries (considered a
hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center) for his work on the
Anti-Homosexuality Act and in cultivating a culture of homophobic
populism in Uganda. Lively has personally endorsed the death penalty
for LGBT individuals.
What's worse, The Fellowship Foundation or "The Family"—the same US
religious group that organizes the National Prayer Breakfast at the
White House—also provided "a base of inspiration and technical
support" for the Anti-Homosexuality legislation in Uganda.
Since the bill was signed into law in February 2014, SMUG reports that
anti-gay attacks have increased ten-fold, including lynchings, mob
violence, evictions, arson, blackmail, firings, and arrests. Within
days of the legislation going into effect, another list of 200 alleged
homosexuals was printed in a newspaper. Dr. Mugisha's name was on it.
Uganda has made life hell for LGBT people.
John Baird, Canada's foreign minister, took a strong stance against
the legislation in February, antagonizing Ugandan politicians who
frame their virulent legislation as anti-colonial. "This act is a
serious setback for human rights, dignity and fundamental freedoms,
and deserves to be widely condemned," he said at the time, "Canada
will speak out."
Baird went on to invoke the legacy of David Kato, who was bludgeoned
to death with a hammer in his own Ugandan home.
Why, then, has Canada denied 9/10 visas to a contingent that includes
Kato's friends and colleagues, who are currently fighting for LGBT
rights on the ground in Uganda? The hypocrisy is stunning. The
applications were rejected due to a combination of reasons. It appears
the government is concerned the ten would seek asylum in Canada, a
worry that is deeply disappointing, especially in light of Baird's
comments. Other official reasons for their refusal into Canada
include: lack of previous travel history, lack of family ties in
Canada (really?), andinsufficient funds for the trip. Read: too poor.
Hardcore evangelical Americans are not alone in providing material
support for the Anti-Homosexuality Act on the ground. Previously,
Ottawa provided nearly half a million dollars in funding to an
anti-gay religious group to do development work in Uganda. When taken
with the backstory of Canada quietly bankrolling groups that support
homophobic legislation and denying visas to LGBT Ugandans, Minister
Baird's condemnations of Uganda carry little weight. For that matter,
so do President Obama's. Until Western governments admit their
complicity in both colonialism and in fueling supposedly anti-colonial
homophobic populism, indictments of Uganda ring hollow.
In a piece recently written for the Guardian, Mugisha explains the
paradox succinctly, "I want my fellow Ugandans to understand that
homosexuality is not a western import and our friends in the developed
world to recognise that the current trend of homophobia is."
VICE reached out to Baird's office for comment and was referred
instead to Minister Chris Alexander's office at Citizenship and
Immigration which is currently working with MP Craig Scott to try to
expedite the reapplication process and reverse the decision:
"Our Conservative government was among the first to speak out against
state-sponsored homophobia in Russia. We welcome resettled gay
refugees from Iran and around the world. We have led the international
response to repression of the LGBT community in Uganda and elsewhere
in Africa. Citizenship and Immigration Canada will continue to do
everything it can, under our immigration laws, to make this conference
a success. Under Canadian law, decisions on individual visa
applications are made by highly-trained public servants," a
spokesperson said.
MP Craig Scott has said he expects "the right thing" to be done in the
end. With the conference set for the end of June, the clock is ticking
to process the applications which will be resubmitted this week,
according to Cossman. It seems, however, that the story of Canada's
role in supporting (or undermining) LGBT rights in Uganda goes beyond
issuing ten temporary visas—and that's a larger conversation we
haven't had yet.
@muna_mire
http://www.google.ca/gwt/x?gl=CA&hl=en-CA&u=http://www.vice.com/en_ca/read/canadas-refusal-to-allow-ugandan-lgbt-activists-into-the-country-speaks-to-a-wider-hypocrisy&source=s&q=Canada's+Refusal+to+Allow+Ugandan+LGBT+Activists+into+the+Country+Speaks+to..&sa=X&ei=MFaKU4vOO-vQsQSelYH4Cw&ved=0CBsQFjAA
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