by LGBTQ keeps trending on my Twitter feed.
“Lobby groups in the US call for President Joe Biden to cancel all trade talks with Kenya until President William Ruto assures them that the bill against LGBTQ will not see light of day.”
“Hungary vows to protect children from LGBTQ propaganda.”
“New law squeezes funding for US LGBTQ rights groups.”
“Russia passes new law banning promotion of “non traditional” sexual relationships.”
But close home, the biggest news on queer matters was in early June when Uganda passed it’s much-criticised anti-gays law.
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, which has been called by some “the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ law” and by others “”Kill the gays law”, imposes a life sentence for those engaging in same-sex sexual acts, and the death penalty when gay folk have sex with a person with disabilities or a minor. It also targets those promoting homosexuality, with up to seven years in jail for landlords renting out premises in which LGBTQ-specific activities take place.
Conservatives rejoice when countries like Uganda, with their traditional views on sex, gender and marriage, push back against the current queer wave.
Could the rest of Africa, long been known to be anti-LGBTQ, follow suit in enacting similar tough laws? Should it?
Will President Ruto acquiesce to pressure and toss Kenya’s anti-homosexuality bill to the bin?
Will Russia and Hungary buck trend and say no to LGBTQ propaganda?
Of Africa’s 54 countries, 33 have declared same-sex acts as illegal. These include Algeria, Burundi, Cameroon, Chad, Comoros, Egypt, Eritrea, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Libya, Malawi, Mauritania, Mauritius, Morocco, Namibia, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
South Africa in November 2006 became the only African country where same sex marriage is legal while Angola in 2021, Botswana (2019) and Mozambique (2015) decriminalised same-sex relationships.
Of those that criminalise homosexuality, their main persuasions are that being gay, queer and practicing homo sex is unAfrican, it threatens traditional family values and that it is an agenda pushed by Western imperialists.
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni in a speech before the anti-homosexuality law was enacted said: “Western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people.”
But in our world today, embracing LGBTQ+ ( lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, questioning, intersex and asexual) is woke.
It’s what is considered good for human rights. It’s what is considered progressive for poor nations that want to be friends of the West and that want to attract donor funds.
Political leaders can keep expecting more pro-gay push from the West and pushback and intimidation if they fail to tow the line.
Ugandans have been accused of bigotry and homophobia. In the US, a fire chief – Kevin Cochran – was dismissed for authoring a book a book that included anti-gay passages. The book is titled, “Who told you that you were naked.” Just this week, King Lawal, a Christian councilor in the US, was suspended after tweeting, ‘Pride is not a virtue but a sin.”
Finnish MP Päivi Räsänen, a former interior minister, has been on trial since 2019 over hate speech for tweets and a radio interview she gave expressing her Biblical views on sexuality and same sex marriages.
Other leaders and nations could follow in pushing against the Pride wave, inspired by their faith or in a bid to preserve traditional and religious values regarding sex and sexuality, but their success in the medium to long-term looks bleak.
The world can only get more queer. Queerness is the spirit of the age. A lot of money is being pumped into it, and a lot of arsenal has been released to sell the lifestyle as cool, normal and right. Every other music video and movie is mainstreaming same sex relationships, alternative gender pronouns, drag queens, transgendered or other queer lifestyle.
And our woke young people are buying into it.
Scripture warns us to expect a great rebellion against God in the latter days as the man of lawlessness is revealed. Lawlessness is the trend to expect. Expect our children to be taught right is wrong, left is right, female is male and male is female.
Second, our governments are built on secular pillars despite the many prayer breakfasts they call for. When political leaders do not feel the singe of conscience when looting money meant for needy citizenry, they won’t feel the conviction when our children are being lied to. And when they do, their hypocrisy will stare back at them.
Third, social fabrics have become increasingly fragile post the Millennial age. We may not have much moral ground to fight against same-sex relationships when we mainstreamed adultery, fornication, witchcraft and theft. Our double standards make it hard to stand up against any one social evil while indulging in a myriad others. Uganda with its strict views on same sex acts has a near epidemic of rape and defilement of children by heterosexual men, writes journalist Charles Onyango-Obbo.
Fourth, claiming homosexuality is a Western concept yet we have adopted and owned many other Western concepts, good and bad, is a mute argument.
Finally, sin is sin before God. In1 Timothy chapter 1:10, homosexuality is lumped alongside liars and promise breakers, because like all other sin, it “contradicts the wholesome teaching that comes from the Good News…”
So while we may feel like Alphabet people are chief of all sinners, they are not. They just sin differently from the rest of us. It is all wrongdoing along with greed, slander and swindling. If we do not by the Spirit of God and the work of Christ on the cross deaden the flesh and it’s manifestations (including drunkenness, slandering and homosexuality) we will stand condemned with the rest of the world that refuses to obey God’s truth.
