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From Kathryn Green MAR 1, 9h19 AM X-Posted from H-AFRICA@H-NET.MSU.EDU _____________________ REPLY 1 From: Steven Thomson <thomson@plu.edu> Date: 28 February 2014 Dear Colleagues, This thread of discussion is certainly rich and challenging. I would offer two observations. First, I think it is remarkable (not surprising, just worthy of noting) that sexual orientation has become a widely accepted human rights issue relatively recently. That is, while scholars and activists have been making this argument for some time, we are engaging this debate at a moment in the US when public opinion on marriage equality has made a remarkably abrupt about-face from a tide of state constitutional amendments banning gay marriage to a string of legislative and court actions making mariage equality a constitutionally protected right. It is my understanding that the debate in Uganda is to a significant degree framed in terms of these events both through media coverage of changes in US law and through the activism of evangelical Christian groups who consider activism in the US a "lost cause" and are staking the future of their movement in sub-Saharan Africa which they see as more open and sympathetic to their views. I am personally horrified by the laws recently passed and signed in Uganda and want to raise a voice in protest, but I think historical context is very important. Would this law have even been proposed in Uganda 10 years ago? If it was, would it have received the same level of public outrage in the US? If public opinion in US has changed so much in such a relatively short period of time, how quickly might public opinion change in other places as well? I don't mean to suggest that "patience" is the appropriate response politically, but that it might be the appropriate scholarly practice. The clear -- and highly relevant -- distinction is that the more conservative political moment in the US did not (re)criminalize private behavior, carry harsh sentences, and unleash outings in the press that are invitations to extra-judicial violence. Second, I am reminded of a lesson I learned a long time ago in the context of another topic that spans similar ground of human rights discourses, moral panics, punitive legal codes, and international activism -- FGM. The lesson I learned early on was that it was much, much less important to consider how I felt about the practices than it was to attend closely to the voices of the activists on the ground working on the topic. Documenting their efforts, amplifying their voices, and aligning our actions with their requests for the kinds of action they ask for from their allies seems to be a key to ethical scholarship. Can anyone on the list direct our attention to the statements of the leading gay rights activists and organizations in Uganda – and specifically their comments on the kinds of support or actions they seek from international allies? Sincerely, Steven Thomson Assistant Professor of Anthropology Pacific Lutheran University _____________________ REPLY 2 From: Joseph Oduro-Frimpong <josh60@siu.edu> Date: 28 February 2014 Thank you, Timothy Burke! _____________________ REPLY 3 From: Ruby Bell-Gam <rbellgam@library.ucla.edu> Date: 28 February 2014 Thanks to Stephen Rockel for these lucid comments and informative references. See also a commentary on the Nigerian situation, posted on The Scoop by acclaimed novelist Chimamanda Adichie: http://www.thescoopng.com/chimamanda-adichie-why-cant-he-just-be-like-everyone-else/ Ruby Bell-Gam _____________________ REPLY 4 From: Heather Tucker <H.Tucker@alumni.ids.ac.uk> Date: 28 February 2014 Greetings all, In response to the thread, I wanted to point out my current PhD research project, as I would be interested in any conferences and or journals that might be interested in this research being published. I'm currently working on my proposal for a research project with a group of refugees who also identify as LGBTI and sexworker, living in Kampala. Most are from the Congo, and Stella Nyanzi has recently published an article on the group: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13533312.2013.846136#.UxB1e_SSwVc My proposal seeks to further include an analysis of how this group is enfolded into the U.S. neoliberal empire in Uganda, and how the empire plays a role in transnational interactions in Uganda (via the U.S. Culture Wars, PEPFAR, and U.S. military occupation in Uganda). I am interested in doing a bit of "past in the present" in regards to understanding U.S. interventions as stirring up a striking similarity to British colonial and missionary Moral Purity Campaigns, which sought to criminalize non-reproductive sexuality in the disguise of anti-syphillis campaigns (and further to make the connection between heteronormativity and it's regulation of female sexuality as well as sexworkers work). Best, Heather Heather Tucker PhD Candidate, Gender Comparative Studies Central European University --
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