Ugandan Tragedy, Human Rights, and US Foreign Aid
By Serra Sippel, President of the Center for Health and Gender Equity (CHANGE), Washington, D.C.
Huffington Post, January 27, 2011 -- There are times when the words are hard to find, because the action they are needed to describe is so repugnant that any language in its entirety is insufficient.
A Ugandan gay rights activist, David Kato, was beaten to death with a hammer in his home yesterday, the result of a staggering climate of intolerance that has been fueled by local media, religious leaders and politicians, and in part by discriminatory U.S.-funded programs. There are other theories behind the murder: robbery and a personal dispute to name two. However, it is irresponsible and ignorant to exonerate from guilt the violent rhetoric towards homosexuals, and particularly David Kato, that has been running rampant in Uganda. While the U.S. has condemned egregious examples of rights-violating policies in Uganda, it still funds HIV interventions that are inherently anti-LGBT (lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender) and anti-woman. They assume and reinforce the idea that everyone is heterosexual, everyone is going to get married, and everyone has control over when and with whom they and their partner have sex; ideas that are flat-out wrong and result in useless HIV interventions and rancid discrimination. There is no justification; personal belief and morality are not excuses for perpetuating HIV infection and stigma that leads to slaughter. It stops now.
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