When Western Influence Means Human Rights Violations

The New York Times has an in-depth article about the ways in which anti-gay Americans Scott Lively, Caleb Lee Brundidge, and Don Schmierer influenced the recent Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 in Uganda (which we’ve covered here and here). The bill, as a refresher, condones literally killing gay people. The piece details just how these three Americans spread their doctrine of hatred:

For three days, according to participants and audio recordings, thousands of Ugandans, including police officers, teachers and national politicians, listened raptly to the Americans, who were presented as experts on homosexuality. The visitors discussed how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how “the gay movement is an evil institution” whose goal is “to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity.”

Western countries, including the United States, have put pressure on the Ugandan government to drop the bill, pointing out that it violates human rights on the most basic levels. Some countries have gone as far as threatening economic sanctions. In response, it appears that the Ugandan government has promised it will back down, at least removing the death penalty clause.
I’m encouraged by the coverage of this issue and the attention that is being paid to American influence. So often African politics are covered as if they occur in an all out vacuum, otherized and vilified without any global context. In this case, and I would imagine largely thanks to Rachel Maddow, the U.S. media seems to be condemning the inhumane legislation and its architects, but is also paying attention to how their discriminatory ideas were formed. They are certainly to blame for their own unethical ideas and bigoted leadership (this is not to over-emphasize Westerners influence), but they had a lot of help justifying their ideas and fomenting their hatred from these three religious “experts” and probably many others born and raised here.
Sadly, at least a few U.S. citizens took a hand in tying the proverbial nooses. It’s important that we all pay attention to how this situation unfolded. In a globalized world, it’s not just American citizens that can be hurt and even killed by our homegrown discriminators, but those far afield of the red, white, and blue. It becomes even more critical that we counter voices of hatred in our own media and throughout the political landscape.