After nearly a month of deliberating on the Uganda question after President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law February 24, President Barack Obama is taking action.
Key members of Congress and leadership were briefed on the four steps the administration will immediately take in response to Uganda's anti-gay law during the afternoon of March 23, reported the Q Center in Portland, Oregon.
The announcement came on the same day that Obama deployed more special operations forces along with CV-22 Ospreys and transport and refueling aircraft to Uganda to help African Union troops combat the Lord�s Resistance Army, White House officials, reported the Army Times .
Quelling concerns about the ongoing efforts to protect LGBT Ugandans with the news of the military action, National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden told the Times, "We continue to look at additional steps we may take, to work to protect LGBT individuals from violence and discrimination, and to urge Uganda to repeal this abhorrent law."
Nearly all of the steps hit Uganda financially.
The U.S. will be shifting $6.4 million that was intended for the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda to other organizations. The IRCU has publicly supported the anti-gay law. The council will continue to receive $2.3 million to continue treatment for some 50,000 current HIV/AIDS patients.
The U.S. has also suspended funding for a study to help identify at-risk populations for contracting HIV/AIDS in order to protect staff and survey participants.
Approximately $3 million meant to invest in Uganda's tourism programs and biodiversity promotion will be redirected to non-governmental agencies working on biodiversity protection.
Lastly, several events scheduled by the Department of Defense in Uganda later this spring are being moved to other locations. "Certain near-term invitational travel" for Ugandan military and police personnel has also been suspended or canceled.
These financial actions against Uganda are followed by the expiration of supplemental funding for 18 senior health officials, Jen Psaki, spokeswoman for the State Department, said in a March 18 press briefing.
Psaki didn't state the value of those contracts to Uganda or where the money would be redirected. However, she reiterated that the funds only affected management level positions, not people working directly with HIV/AIDS patients. The funding didn't "directly impact PEPFAR's ability to deliver lifesaving medications in Uganda," she said, referring to the Presidents Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief.
"We're taking a thoughtful, deliberate look at next steps in light of the enactment of the law," said Psaki, pointing out that the administration is being sensitive to LGBT Ugandan activists' requests "not to cut off aid to the Ugandan people."
"We want to make sure that actions we take don't have a detrimental impact on the Ugandan people who need those health services, et cetera," continued Psaki. "So we're all looking at all of that."
Last week, Psaki announced that a team of scientific experts was being organized to be sent to Uganda to open a dialogue with Museveni about homosexuality in a diplomatic move to hopefully repeal the law.
However, human rights advocates are concerned about the focus on Uganda when other countries, such as Nigeria, which passed a similar law in January that has led to mass arrests of alleged LGBT people, have been cast in the shadows. There's also new concern about similar legislation being proposed by lawmakers in the Congo and Ethiopia within the past week.
"We're extremely concerned about the lack of consistency," Julie Dorf of the Council for Global Equality, which lobbies for LGBT rights in U.S. foreign policy, told BuzzFeed. "We would like to see a [consistent] ongoing response for any country that further criminalizes homosexuality."
The U.S. isn't the only country wielding its financial power against homophobic countries.
Norway and Denmark withheld aid of $8 million and $9 million, respectively, reported the Observer.
Skelleftea, Sweden is also calling into question its tourism partnership with Uganda for two big tourism events in Jinja by suspending its participation, reported eTurbo News.
The European Parliament passed a resolution demanding action by its 28 member states, including redirecting aid away from Uganda and Nigeria toward a civil society organization within the countries, and refusing to issue travel visas for Ugandan and Nigerian government and non-government leaders connected to the anti-gay law.
The European Union members invoked Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement, a treaty between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States. The article allows partner countries to take appropriate actions for violation of living up to the members' human rights commitments under the treaty.
Perhaps the biggest hit to Uganda is the World Bank's suspension of a $90 million health care loan in direct response to the country�s anti-gay law.
Hate doesn't pay
At a recent discussion at the World Bank headquarters a panel of seven experts discussed the economic impact of homophobia.
M.V. Lee Badgett, Ph.D., an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, estimated that the cost of homophobia ranges between 0.1 percent and 1.7 percent of the gross domestic product. The figure is "conservative," because ongoing invisibility of LGBT people makes it difficult to get the numbers for a wide-reaching study.
However, Badgett based the figure on a case study she conducted in India where she considered a variety of factors affected by homophobia from loss of employment to workplace and educational discrimination, poor health, and poverty that have broader implications for a country's economic health.
She estimated that health issues such as HIV disparity, depression, and suicide among the LGBT population alone cost India between $712 million and $23.1 billion in 2012. Overall, the report estimated the annual cost of homophobia in India was $31 billion or more.
Got international LGBT news tips? Call or send them to Heather Cassell at 00+1-415-221-3541, Skype: heather.cassell, or mailto:[email protected].