The NASWU phrases its targeting as an “apolitical” stance which is focused on what is best for people in a structured society. The NASWU stance, however, is disingenuous and clearly carries an animus which is unacceptable in modern day mental health circles. The stance cannot help but harm the mental health of the lesbian and gay populations in Uganda. The “illness model” of homosexuality which the NASWU is touting, was popular in the first half of the 20th century but has long since been discarded by mental health professionals in the United States as scientifically unsound and ultimately harmful. In my experience, few mental health professionals currently view homosexuality as a choice and even fewer believe that homosexuals are “recruited” into homosexuality by other homosexuals.

The question that needs to be asked is why Uganda is so defiantly challenging Western society on the issue of homosexuality by proposing draconian legislation which imposes long prison sentences — and even death sentences. While the proposed legislation calls for the death of any gay person who is HIV positive and engages in gay sex, the same legislation presumably has not been proposed for straight HIV positive people. (In Africa, HIV is spread predominantly through straight sex.) While the defiance might be seen simply as an expression of a culture that is predominantly Christian (84%) with a religious tradition of proscribing homosexual behavior, I believe the defiance has other roots.

Since Uganda’s independence from Britain in 1962, the country has gone through many governments and coups. The horrific and psychotically sadistic carnage of Idi Amin in the 1970s still dominates the memory of many Western people. Child slavery and child soldiers are still a problem in parts of Uganda where rebel groups forage. I believe that Uganda is seeking self respect. By cloaking themselves in Biblical passages, some Ugandans are saying in effect, “The rest of the World has become unholy, but Uganda is exemplary because it stands with God.” By scapegoating a relatively insignificant minority in Uganda, Uganda is able to make a strong international statement about how it sees itself among other nations which it perceives as looking down on Uganda as primitive and immoral. Gays and lesbians are immaterial to that statement and are easily sacrificed by the Uganda majority which is struggling so fervently to achieve a better sense of self-esteem in the World arena. Such secondary agendas are often at the root of the intransigence of groups which seemed to be unaffected by reason and rational thought. I believe that the solution to fighting the brutal laws against gays and lesbian in Uganda ultimately is not found in the challenging of the law, but rather in a long term effort to help Uganda achieve self respect so that it does not need to scapegoat any of its minorities.

David L. Scasta, M.D., DFAPA

Hatzenbuehler, ML, McLaughlin KA, Keyes KM, and Hasin DS. The Impact of institutional discrimination on psychiatric disorders in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations: A prospective study. American Journal of Public Health. March 2010 (Vol. 100; No. 3), Pp 452-459.

2 Hatzenbuehler ML, Keyes KM, Hasin DS. State-level policies and psychiatric morbidity in lesbian, gay, and bisexual populations. American Journal of Public Health. 2009, Dec; 99(12):2275-81. Epub 2009 Oct 15.