As you may have already heard, Uganda enacted an extreme anti-LGBTQ law on Monday. It imposes harsh punishments including life imprisonment and the death penalty, and it is already harming people in the LGBTQ community.

The movement to deny LGBTQ rights and criminalize individuals is gaining momentum across Africa, with Kenya and Ghana considering similar bills. And global anti-rights groups based in the West—such as U.S.-based Family Watch International—are partly to blame. For decades they have been traveling to the region to restrict the rights of LGBTQ people under the guise of protecting heterocentric “family values.”

At Ipas, we know that Uganda’s new law is part of a broad global anti-rights movement to undermine gender justice, LGBTQ rights, and access to sexual and reproductive health and rights—including abortion. For more than a decade, I’ve led a team working to understand, mitigate and share information about the many ways anti-rights actors are attacking the right to bodily autonomy.

When the news about Uganda broke, I was interviewed by the New York Times and shared what we’ve been seeing for years: that laws like this have harmful impacts beyond the LGBTQ community. An attack on the bodily autonomy and equality of some people causes harm to us all.

I invite you to learn more by reading the story that includes my interview in the New York Times. And I promise you we’ll keep working to uncover and share the truth about the organizations fueling this global anti-rights movement.

In solidarity, 

Gillian 

Gillian Kane
Senior Lead Policy Analyst, Ipas