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Biden calls for immediate repeal of Uganda's anti-gay law - POLITICO

From the Washington Post, June 2, 2023

In February 2014, Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank, received calls from Rep. Barney Frank, the influential former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as well as other prominent congressional leaders. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had just approved a slightly weaker version of the brutal anti-homosexuality bill that he signed into law this past Monday.  Frank reportedly told Kim that support from the United States and other donors could be in jeopardy if “the bank goes ahead and gives all this money to Uganda right after signing that terrible law.” 

Soon thereafter, Kim published a Post op-ed announcing that the World Bank would undertake a review of how it might enshrine opposition to discrimination more explicitly into its decision-making. The bank had long been criticized for not taking human rights violations seriously as it decided how to apportion funding for projects.

In February 2014, Jim Yong Kim, then-president of the World Bank, received calls from Rep. Barney Frank, the influential former chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, as well as other prominent congressional leaders. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni had just approved a slightly weaker version of the brutal anti-homosexuality bill that he signed into law this past Monday. Frank reportedly told Kim that support from the United States and other donors could be in jeopardy if “the bank goes ahead and gives all this money to Uganda right after signing that terrible law.”  

Soon thereafter, Kim published a Post op-ed announcing that the World Bank would undertake a review of how it might enshrine opposition to discrimination more explicitly into its decision-making. The bank had long been criticized for not taking human rights violations seriously as it decided how to apportion funding for projects.

Ten years later, we are back to square one. After the militant Islamist group al-Shabab overran a Ugandan military base in Somalia last week, Museveni, in dire need of a distraction, again signed a bill in clear violation of international human rights standards, instrumentalizing an already marginalized community for political gain.

The new law not only calls for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of having homosexual sex. It also calls for the death penalty in cases of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes same-sex relations between HIV-positive people, children or other vulnerable individuals. It even criminalizes the “promotion of homosexuality,” punishable by up to 20 years in prison.

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darryll k. jones