Empire and Intolerance: Anti-LGBTQ Movements in Africa and Latin America

• In Event: The Political Dynamics of Progress and Backlash on Women’s and LGBT+ Rights

Abstract

In May 2023, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ bills into law, prompting a sharp rebuke from the United States. The push to approve this legislation was accompanied by a fervent anti-imperial discourse, with Ugandan social conservatives rejecting the supposed imposition of progressive values by the Global North. Yet an international campaign by American evangelicals has played an important role in the growth and political success of Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ movement. The experience of Uganda and many other African countries contrasts with that of Latin America, where social conservatives have generally been on the defensive against progressive reforms, anti-imperial discourse has been less prevalent, international anti-LGBTQ movements have played less of a significant role, and foreign governments have been less critical of legislative trends. Yet courts, another legacy of empire, have played an important role in advancing LGBTQ rights in Latin America while doing little in Africa outside of South Africa. This paper will compare and contrast conservative Christian anti-LGBTQ movements in Africa and Latin America, focusing on the multiple and often contradictory ways that notions of empire intersect with the backlash against LGBTQ rights.

Authors

• Taylor C. Boas, Boston University

• Timothy Longman, Boston University