Call for contributions for Outliers Volume 4

Issue Title: Uganda's Gay-Hating Bill and Global Battles

Submit brief biographical details and paper (800 words – 2 000 words) by August 30, 2010
Submit to: Desiree Lewis <deslewis@iafrica.com> dlewis@uwc.ac.za and send a copy to
editirnoutliers@gmail.com.
Note: email subject should include the following: The author’s initials, the mention OutliersV.4, and
title of the submission - as in “DLewis_OutliersV.4_Understanding the Bill…” or
“SNyeck_OutliersV4._Politics of….”.

The anti- homosexuality bill introduced in Uganda in October 2009 sparked off wide-spread outrage,
condemnation and, in certain quarters (and not only Uganda), massive support among defenders of the
authoritarian, gay-hating status quo. Among many on the left, both in the west and in Africa, the Bill
testifies mainly to a backwardness that critics thankfully believe is alien to their own countries. So,
certain South Africans heaved a sigh of relief in the belief that South Africa, unlike Uganda, is a
country where gay, lesbian, intersexed and transgender rights are firmly protected. Similarly, in the
West, the zeal with which certain donor organizations, NGO workers and activists launched the battle
to defend human rights violations in Uganda speaks volumes about their complacent belief in their
guaranteed freedoms. Ironically, the gay-hating mindset from which proponents of the Uganda bill
take their cue, (especially the Christian fundamentalism that the homophobic zealots in Uganda
presently express) draws directly on certain philosophies in the West: the obsession with “natural”
African sexuality as patriarchal and heterosexual is a colonial prescription. And it's a prescription that
many Africans have tragically embraced. The current neo-fundamentalist Christian obsession with
patriarchal and heterosexist morality, family structure and values has been directly fueling the rhetoric
and beliefs of many gay-hating Ugandans today.
For radical African gays and other progressives committed to all forms of imperial, racist, homophobic
violence and othering, the Bill raises three sets of issues:
1 – to confront the Ugandan Bill as a global problem with global repercussions
2 - to use vibrant and outspoken ways to speak about the Bill not simply as “expressing homophobia”,
but as promoting sustained hatred and violence.
3 – to raise debate about global systems that currently work to reproduce homophobia and
authoritarianism throughout the world.
This issue of Outliers provides a forum for wide-ranging writing addressing these themes. Radical
gays, lesbians, transgender and intersexed people, (especially from Africa) as well as other progressives
are invited to submit essays, opinion pieces, interviews and writings in any genres.