LGBT

When the US government began legalizing gay marriage at the state level in the early 2000s, many extreme evangelical groups started to recognize that the fight against LGBTQ+ rights in the United States was a losing battle. These groups then shifted focus to Uganda, which was seen as fertile ground for this anti-gay ideology due to a majority conservative Christian base and young population. Uganda had also been significantly impacted by HIV/AIDS in the 1990s and was still recovering from a devastating civil war in the 1980s.

American evangelical groups have since spent years and tens of millions of dollars spreading homophobia in Uganda and beyond. Data from OpenDemocracy shows that from 2007 to 2020, over 20 US evangelical groups spent at least $54 million in Africa “to influence laws, policies, and public opinion against sexual and reproductive rights." Nearly half of that figure was spent in Uganda.

This movement quickly gained traction in 2009 after top American evangelical leaders headlined a three-day conference in Kampala on “exposing the homosexuals’ agenda.” Speakers promoted the notion that the “traditional” Ugandan family is exclusively heterosexual, claiming that gay Westerners and activists are attempting to spread homosexuality by corrupting and recruiting children around the world. Attendees and top politicians, including President Museveni and his wife, received this message well.