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But I found that while Ugandan anti-homosexuality activism drew support from some US Christians, it was largely driven by local concerns. The idea of sexual identities is well developed and accepted in the West. But it is not well established in Uganda. For most Ugandans, though, sexual identity — as something distinct from a sexual act or desire — remains a foreign concept.
In Uganda sexuality is shaped by family and kinship relationships. This tightly binds sexuality to reproduction and gender identity. This is not to say that sex is understood to be only for procreation.
But while sexual acts may vary widely, sexual identity generally does not. Many Ugandans also associate homosexuality with sexual freedom, choice, and individualism. This chafes against a cultural perspective that emphasises the social, political, and moral importance of hierarchical family relationships. For instance in Buganda, the largest of the traditional kingdoms in Uganda, traditional ideals are expressed by the term ekitiibwa , or respectability.
Western liberals eager to see the best in Africa must face an inconvenient truth: this is the most homophobic continent on Earth. Same-sex relations are illegal in 36 of Africa's 55 countries, according to Amnesty International, and punishable by death in some states. Now a fresh crackdown is under way. In January, Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan signed into law a bill criminalising same-sex "amorous relationships" and membership of LGBT rights groups.
Last week Gambian president Yahya Jammeh declared : "We will fight these vermins called homosexuals or gays the same way we are fighting malaria-causing mosquitoes, if not more aggressively. This is not, however, merely the hate-filled bile of politicians. They make such statements because they know they will strike a popular chord in swaths of Africa.
Anyone who has spent a fair amount of time on the continent is likely to encounter a warm, friendly, decent human being who will stop them short with an outburst of homophobic prejudice.
Newspapers, TV and radio often fan the flames. So it is in Uganda, where a tabloid once published photographs of dozens of gay people under the words: "Hang them. Museveni has until Sunday to sign, veto or amend the bill, and at first he indicated that he would knock it back.
On 18 January, the Associated Press AP reported, he held a meeting with US-based rights activists and, on the phone, South African retired archbishop Desmond Tutu, who drew a comparison between the legislation and racist laws under apartheid.
Something changed his mind. A month later the president, under domestic pressure, announced that he would sign the bill after receiving a report on homosexuality from a team of "medical experts". But the Observer has obtained the report, entitled "Scientific statement from the ministry of health on homosexuality"; it is far from the bigots' charter that might be expected.
Some people are less fixed in one form of sexuality than others. Thus sexuality is a far more flexible human quality than used to be assumed in the past. Homosexuality has no clear cut cause; several factors are involved which differ from individual to individual.
It is not a disease that has a treatment. But Simon Lokodo argues that the most important conclusion is that there is no definitive gene for homosexuality. The commercialisation of homosexuality is unacceptable.
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