Uganda's anti-homosexuality bill wants to 'rehabilitate' LGBTIQ+ people – African psychologists warn of its dangers

• Unfortunately, the practices described in the declaration are included in the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposed by Uganda’s parliament.
• PsySSA president, professor Floretta Boonzaier, has described the bill to me as “an attack on human dignity, well-being, autonomy and self-determination”.
• Research conducted in three African countries in 2019 found that half of the respondents suffered some form of conversion.
• South African psychologists with expertise in sexuality and gender have condemned the bill.

No scientific grounding

• But he has ignored evidence-based critiques that have been presented to him over the years, dating back to 2010 and 2014.
• Brouard has said the bill
  is anti-science and represents a backward step in contemporary understanding of human nature.

Perpetuating harm

• Professor Kopano Ratele, an acclaimed African psychology scholar, said via email that
  the bill is, at its core, inhuman.
• It seems that the bill is essentially about some people desiring to control the bodies, relationships, and the inner lives of others.
• It criminalises identity by prescribing prosecution for how people think, feel, identify, and, ultimately, who and how they love.
• Christian evangelical churches from the US have been directly linked to current anti-LGBTIQ+ ideologies in African countries.

The next steps

• We call on mental health professionals from across Africa to sign and endorse the declaration and to join the growing chorus of experts who have condemned Uganda’s dangerous bill.
• The PsySSA Sexuality and Gender Division, for example, has been at the forefront of leading a science-informed critique of the Ugandan bill.