Transnational Sex Politics, Conservative Christianity, and Antigay Activism in Uganda

Abstract

In October 2009, a private member introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill to Uganda’s Parliament for consideration. This article analyzes the Bill within a broader context of transnational antigay activism, specifically the diverse ways that antigay activism in Uganda is shaped by global dynamics (such as the U.S. Christian Right’s pro-family agenda) and local forms of knowledge and concerns over culture, national identity, and political and socio-economic issues/interests. This article lends insight into how transnational antigay activism connects to and reinforces colonial-inspired scripts about “African” sexuality and the deepening power inequalities between the global North and South under global neoliberalism, and raises some important questions about how the racial and gender politics of the U.S. Christian Right’s pro-family agenda travel and manifest within the Ugandan context.