Is The Homophobia In Uganda Ignored Due To Racism In LGBT Community?

The western media have focused an enormous amount of media attention about the homophobia in Russia. Since the Winter Olympics will take place in Russia in February 2014 the issue of LGBT rights in Russia has gotten the spotlight.

Perhaps the shock of the Occident is due to the fact Europe is stereotyped as being progressive, tolerant, and modern?
Western people seem to be horrified that Vladimir Putin has created and passed anti gay legislation in Russia.

Where is the press about the anti gay bill in Uganda now becoming law? Where is the GLAAD spokesperson Wilson Cruz? Why isn’t the Human Rights Campaign on television denouncing the anti gay law in Uganda becoming law? Why is there this canyon of silence?

If the Winter Olympics was taking place in Africa, or South America, or Asia, or the Middle East would the western media care about the plight of LGBT people there? Or, is it because Russia although a communist nation, is still a part of Europe and is still a white nation why there is so much press?

The white homosexuals in Russia have it easier than say Jamaican LGBT people, or gay and lesbian people in Iran where gays can be killed.

Although, people like to pretend race doesn’t matter in the obsession of the western media coverage about discrimination of LGBT people in Russia it would be naive to ignore it.

The Russian LGBT people we see on television are white, and western people especially in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada relate to them since they are white themselves.

The homophobia in Uganda is treated and viewed through a different lens by the western media in the mainstream and the LGBT community. Uganda is foreign, it is distant, it is too black, the other, and therefore invisible and treated like an afterthought.

However, Russia’s anti gay laws are terrible. I am not disputing that LGBT people in Russia are not being discriminated against. I am just pointing out there are many countries around the world where the rights of LGBT people are worse! Celebrities like Wentworth Miller, Thomas Roberts, speak out about the homophobia in Russia yet are silent about the discrimination of LGBT people in other countries.

There is this facade that the LGBT community is a monolithic group however this is a DANGEROUS LIE! The racism within the LGBT media is more subtle but it is indeed very real and it exists.

Whenever, I visit message boards and people write about homophobia in African countries there is the usual racist rhetoric that Africans are uncivilized and that’s why they are against homosexuality. However, in the United States, there are racist white Christian groups who travel to the third world to engender homophobia. Why doesn’t the bigotry of American Christian groups not getting more media attention? I recall during my undergraduate days at York University, I learned that American Evangelical Christian groups travel to Uganda, and other African countries and provide funding for Christian groups there. The homophobia in Uganda didn’t just emerge out of nowhere.

The Rachel Maddow show is one of the rare American television shows which have provided a space for dialogue about the homophobia in Uganda.

The Ugandan government has passed the anti gay bill. However, I don’t recall GLAAD, or Human Rights Campaign, or LGBT celebrities speaking out about the homophobia in Uganda.

Since the majority of the LGBT community in Uganda are black Africans or South Asians due to the issue of race they don’t receive the same media attention.

Could it be, because Russia is a white European nation, gay and lesbian organizations in the west relate to Russia easier? Uganda isn’t the only nation with terrible anti gay laws countries such as Iran, Malaysia, and the Middle East gay people have NO RIGHTS!

Sorry if I sound cynical, but I can’t help sense there is an element of racism by the LGBT power elite organizations like GLAAD about Uganda and other third world nations in relation to gay rights.