PROJECT REPORT ON NGOS (GOONJ & SAVE THE CHILDREN)
GlobalGayPoster
1. The Global Gay
Modernity, State-Sponsored Homophobia & a Ugandan LGBTI Rights NGO*
Greyson Conant Brooks
Background
u Colonial era anti-sodomy laws
u Gay identity emerged in early 2000s
u Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2009 & 2012)
u Media attention; numerous
transnational actors
u NGO a key site of neoliberal
globalization, citizenship, and
sovereignty in local contexts
u Poster child for studying the
cultural influences of tradition
versus modernity
Research
Question
How is it that
SMUG constructs
identity & positions
itself in this debate,
& what narratives
does it employ to
achieve this?
Results: Outcomes of
Development Participation
u Participation has both costs (i.e.
LGBTIs pigeonholed as other
opposite straight Ugandans) &
benefits (solidarity with international
community).
u Development-as-occupation:
u Not solely to do good;
people have personal
agendas and interests: I
need to develop my own
career.
u Activism as a source of
income
u Activist as a badge of honor,
provides social capital
Conclusions
u SMUG’s liberalist assertions of human
rights are enabling internationally
but, conversely, are disabling in the
local context. Ugandan sexual
minorities in Uganda might have
greater success by modeling their
movement’s methodologies on local
constructs of justice, equality, and
respect, rather than eschewing
them.
* Funding for this research was provided in part from the
The Lewis N. Cotlow Field Research Fund. Dr. Stephen C.
Lubkemann provided guidance and inspiration for this
project. Photographs are borrowed with permission from
SMUG’s website; map from the Western District Foreign
Mission's Department blog; Ugandan flag courtesy of
Spikeyrashon of Wikimedia Commons.
Methodology
u Fieldwork in Kampala, Uganda s
capital & a city of ≈1.7 million people
u Six weeks in June & July, 2012
u Semi-structured interviews (9) &
participant observation (200+ hours)
u Internship with the Research
Department at SMUG: copy editing,
grant writing, logistics, documentation.
u Difficulty gaining access: information
security is a top priority for SMUG
Results:
SMUG’s Self Perceptions
u Allies itself with an identity of
gayness perceived to be universal
and inalienable
u Organizes its practice through the
language of development & human
rights, which allows SMUG to (inter)
act on (inter)national stages
u Views itself as a human rights activist
organization, removed from influence
of local culture: We don t get
involved in politics. Sees itself as
needing to elevate Ugandans out of
their culture through civic education
on LGBTI issues and rights
Thesis
u Sexual Minorities Uganda, founded
2004 in Kampala
u Umbrella Organization for 17 Ugandan
NGOs who support LGBTI human
rights, education & health
u The Secretariat (NGO office: Frank
Mugisha, Executive Director, & seven
other employees
u Goal: squash the ‘antigay’ bill
u Planned Uganda’s 1st gay Pride
u HR Court cases – domestic & abroad
u International partners - awards,
networking, publicity, grants
u Mission: “To monitor, coordinate and
support member organizations to
achieve their objectives aimed at
LGBTI liberation.”
u Vision: “A liberated… LGBTI people of
Uganda.”
What Is SMUG?
Anthropology M.A. candidate 2013, International Development concentration
Results: SMUG’s
Perceptions of Opponents
u Views its opponents as portraying the
LGBTI struggle simply as a clash of
cultures (Western cultural import
versus African subjectivity); cultural
relativist argument
u Equates realization of (Western)
LGBTI rights & needs with being
more culturally enlightened; places
Uganda on a hierarchical scale vis à
vis fully developed nations
u SMUG claims LGBTI Ugandans
unable to be fully gay under
current situation, linking themselves
to modernity and progress
u Gay acceptance as essential to
(neoliberal) state formation: LGBTI
issues are developmental issues.
SMUG critiques the state as
preventing modernity
u SMUG employs international
development & a globalized vocabulary
of liberalist HRs & inalienable freedoms
in their attempt to negotiate with and win
over anti-gay proponents in Uganda to
prevent the Anti-Gay Bill from becoming
law, which SMUG views as antithetical to
Uganda’s national progress.