What African LGBTQ+ activists need from donors amid anti-gay law surge

As LGBTQ+ activists in Africa await another legal challenge to an anti-gay law in Uganda and a proposed one in Ghana, Western donors are being urged to increase funding for the movement, develop more effective narratives to support rights in the global south, and to counter Western evangelical influence. Ghana's Supreme Court postponed a hearing on a legal challenge to the Promotion of Proper Human Sexual Rights and Ghanaian Family Values Bill, which was approved by the country's Parliament in February. The bill criminalizes LGBTQ+ sexual activity, prescribing prison sentences ranging from six months to three years for engaging in such acts. Moreover, it imposes sentences of three to five years for promoting or sponsoring LGBTQ+ activities. Two petitions have been filed challenging the constitutionality of the controversial legislation. In Uganda, a court ruling last month struck down two sections and two subsections of the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 while upholding the constitutionality of the remaining provisions of the law. The law prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.” Activists are appealing the Constitutional Court’s decision not to strike down the entire law and say the partial nullification was "merely window dressing designed to try to persuade donors to restart funding." The European Union has been singled out for what activists describe as a lackluster approach to addressing LGBTQ+ rights violations. Last month, campaigners staged a protest at the European Union Delegation to the United States in Washington D.C., demanding that the bloc impose sanctions on Uganda. In a response to Devex, the bloc said it “deeply regrets” the court’s decision to uphold the Anti-Homosexuality Act and it is waiting for the outcome of the appeal process, adding that the court’s judgment “does not go far enough.” Activists are calling for increased funding to support LGBTQ+ initiatives, not only to counter the anti-rights movements but to also promote positive narratives surrounding inclusion and diversity. Some argue that Western evangelical groups wield significant influence across the continent and can push for the introduction of anti-gay laws not necessarily because of their financial resources, but rather because the LGBTQ+ community and its donors have not invested enough in challenging their ideological sway. “Donor funding should be aimed on projects that can empower LGBTQ+ Ugandans economically, socially and politically — not only in emergencies,” Steven Kabuye, co-executive director of Ugandan NGO Coloured Voice Truth to LGBTQ, told Devex via phone. Kabuye, who was nearly fatally stabbed in January, is now seeking asylum in Canada. “We need to strategize if we are to win this fight,” Kabuye said. “The surging anti-gay laws in Africa are reason enough to show that we are losing the fight in Africa.” Kabuye was speaking after what is largely considered an anti-gay continent-wide conference under the guise of “family values” was held for the second year at a beach resort in the East African country. Uganda's anti-gay law was signed into law after the inaugural Parliamentary Conference on Family Values and Sovereignty, which was attended by the U.S.-based Christian nonprofit Family Watch International, activist Frank Mugisha said. FWI is known for its opposition to LGBTQ+ rights, abortion, and comprehensive sexuality education. A Kenyan member of parliament attempted to introduce similar legislation in the neighboring nation following the conference, Mugisha added. Family Watch International, an organization designated by The Southern Poverty Law Center as a hate group who now has a Q&A page on their site dedicated to their involvement in Uganda, has denied supporting efforts to promote anti-homosexuality bills in Africa. They insist that they oppose Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act, highlighting on their site that the group “opposes harassment of or violence against all persons, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.” This year’s conference was hosted by the Uganda Parliamentary Forum on the Family, in collaboration with the African Bar Association, who describe themselves as a professional body of lawyers, and the Foundation for African Cultural Heritage, or FACH, based in Nigeria. FACH describes itself as “a non-governmental, non-political, not-for-profit coalition of pro-life individuals and organizations in Nigeria.” President of the African Bar Association, Hannibal Uwaifo, told Devex in an email that the association as a group is not against same-sex marriage but will not promote or in anyway encourage it “as this is against our culture and has been a crime in the statute books in most countries in the Continent for decades.” This year’s conference drew participation from a diverse array of African nations. Participants from Ghana, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Cameroon, Gambia, Zambia, Tanzania, Comoros, South Sudan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Egypt, Burundi, Somalia, Botswana, Eswatini, Burkina Faso, and Kenya all attended, reflecting the widespread influence and reach of the organizers and their agenda. But unlike last year, FWI was off the program. “FWI leadership did NOT participate but a few of our African team members did,” FWI Communications Director Lynn Allred told Devex in an email. She referred Devex to an August 2023 affidavit signed by Ugandan MP Sarah Opendi, the Parliamentary Forum on Family chair and chair of the first conference’s organizing committee stating that FWI President Sharon Slater was in fact “quite concerned” about the Ugandan bill and “pleaded with the President to revisit the bill and provide for a safe haven for those homosexuals that would wish to voluntarily seek for help and counseling rather than their punishment.” In another letter signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni the same month, he said “Madame Slater had nothing to do with originating, canvassing for or supporting the enactment of this law. Her comments concentrated on CSE [comprehensive sexuality education] and the ACP-EU Agreement.” But Kristof Titeca, professor of development studies at the Institute of Development Policy at the University of Antwerp, told Devex via Zoom that FWI no longer needed to be on this year’s conference program. “The strong involvement is no longer that necessary because the law has such a broad support,” he said. “So there's not that much pushing needed, but it can still have an impact, of course.” Titeca said that the anti-gay movement in Uganda was “stronger than ever.” While FWI has been accused of wielding significant influence in Uganda, Titeca emphasized that the Arizona-based organization is not as well-funded or as large as it may appear. They are just one of more than 20 anti-gay U.S. Christian groups who spent at least $54 million in Africa since 2007, Open Democracy revealed in 2020. But Fabrice Houdart, a U.S.-based LGBTQ+ activist and former president of the LGBTQ+ employee resource group, aka GLOBE, of the World Bank, which halted funding to Uganda over the law last August, also questioned whether money and power correlate. “The narrative that evangelical funding is pouring into these countries is convenient but untrue,” he told Devex in an email. “The idea that evangelical continues to be a white export, ‘colonial Christians,’ is also inaccurate: the future of Christianity is neither white nor Western. For US LGBTQI+ organizations, perpetuating these simplistic explanations is an effective fundraising tactic, but also allows us to ignore our failure in supporting local movements.” Houdart said that there was a harsh truth being ignored. “The reality is that U.S. evangelicals do influence Christian politicians in these places, while we, the LGBTQ+ movement and donors, are not spending money to counter these narratives,” he said. Global LGBTQ+ funding increased by over $16 million — 3% — reaching $576 million according to the 2019-20 Global Resources Report by The Global Philanthropy Project, Houdart stressed. But only $184 million was allocated to the global south. This amount represented a paltry 0.04% of the total official development assistance during that period, highlighting the stark underfunding of LGBTQ+ causes globally. In contrast, the collective revenues of 36 LGBTQ+ NGOs based in the United States totaled $386 million, exceeding combined 2021 expenses ($267 million) by roughly $119 million, according to the 2022 annual National LGBTQI Movement Report, published by Movement Advancement Project. None of this was directed toward advocacy efforts abroad, Houdart emphasized. Data from the 2024 LGBTQ+ Index, part of the Equitable Giving Lab at Indiana University's Lilly Family School of Philanthropy unveiled a substantial increase in donations to LGBTQ+ organizations in the U.S. over the past decade. The figures demonstrated a remarkable growth trajectory, with contributions climbing from $387 million in 2012 to an impressive $823 million in 2021. “We have also failed to find good narratives on why LGBTQ+ inclusion is African, for example,” added Houdart. “In short, the issue with US evangelicals is not as much money as it is narrative and an interest in Africa.” In Ghana, where FWI and far-right U.S. group World Congress of Families have been accused of whipping up hate, there was a rich pre-colonization history of same-sex tribes being “celebrated not just tolerated,” said Roslyn Mould, board member of local NGO LGBT+ Rights Ghana and vice president of Humanists International. “I went to so many workshops within the LGBTQ+ community, where we have historians and African researchers giving us examples of that.” But she added via phone: “We don’t just need an Ubuntu philosophy or humanist philosophy, we need education on our history.” Ubuntu, a Bantu word that means “humanity,” is a philosophy that states “I am because you are.” Mould said that she felt that donors did not want to be reminded of colonialism. “I don't think they want to be blamed. But I know they're trying their best to support us.” She said that some embassies like the American and European embassies had provided safe spaces and sometimes even given emergency funding.