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Updated Sunday, November 22, 2009 12:25 am TWN, By James Kirchick, Special to The Los Angeles Times

U.S. should end AIDS funds for Uganda on homophobia

Since its inception in 2003, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief — PEPFAR — has become the largest public health program in history. Created by President George W. Bush, it has distributed nearly US$50 billion worldwide, mostly in Africa, to prevent the spread of HIV and to treat its victims. Over the past five years, the fund has provided care for 3 million people and prevented an estimated 12 million new infections. Even Bush's harshest critics do not deny that PEPFAR has been a huge success in combating AIDS.

In spite of all that the program has accomplished, however, a persistent problem remains: the promotion of homophobia by African governments receiving American aid money. In no nation is this problem more acute than in Uganda, one of 15 PEPFAR “focus” countries that collectively account for half of the world's HIV infections. Homosexuality is considered a taboo in most of Africa, yet few governments have gone to the lengths of Uganda's in punishing it. The consequences are devastating not only for the people directly affected by these adverse policies but for the fight against AIDS in general.

Uganda's campaign against homosexuality took a disturbing turn in October when a member of Parliament in the nation's governing majority introduced legislation that would stiffen penalties for actual or perceived homosexual activity, which is already illegal under Ugandan law. According to the proposed law, “repeat offenders” could be sentenced to death, as would anyone engaging in a same-sex relationship in which one of the members is under the age of 18 or HIV-positive. Gay-rights advocacy would be illegal, and citizens would be compelled to report suspected homosexuals or those “promoting” homosexuality to police; if they failed to do so within 24 hours, they also could be punished.

International human rights groups have protested the bill, but their complaints have only made the government more defiant.

“It is with joy we see that everyone is interested in what Uganda is doing, and it is an opportunity for Uganda to provide leadership where it matters most,” the country's ethics and integrity minister has said.

Aside from its evident inhumanity, such draconian legislation will only do massive harm to HIV-prevention efforts. Gay men are an at-risk community, and they already face severe repression in most African countries.

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