1
|
Strand C, Svensson J. Towards a Situated Understanding of Vulnerability - An Analysis of Ugandan LGBT+ Exposure to Hate Crimes in Digital Spaces. JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY 2023; 70:2806-2827. [PMID: 35674676 DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2022.2077679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
This study maps Uganda LGBT+ experiences of online hate crime and analyzes how preexisting vulnerability morph in digital spaces. Based on field notes, workshop material, and interviews with 13 LGBT+ individuals, the study finds that digital presences in contexts where users are vulnerable due to state-sanctioned discrimination and social exclusion, digital arenas exacerbate users' vulnerability to hate crimes through their digital footprints. The longing for community and intimacy, together with in some cases an unfamiliarity with how digital media can be misused, appear to facilitate both the ideologically driven perpetrators hunting LGBT+, and Crime passionnel, where an (ex)partner miscalculates the implications of publishing private material. This study thus illustrates how digital spaces are not safe(r) spaces, where LGBT+ are free to playfully explore sexual orientation and gender non-conformity, away from society's abhorring gaze. Furthermore, contrary to what could be expected, LGBT+ individuals' vulnerability was most often not the result of an outside intruder hunting LGBT+ online. The article reiterates the importance of a situated approach, acknowledging the environmental influences when studying and addressing LGBT+ vulnerabilities in digital spaces.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Strand
- Department for Informatics and Media, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden
| | - Jakob Svensson
- Department for Art, Culture and Communication (K3), Malmö Univeristy, Malmö, Sweden
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
A Multi-Methodological Exploration of Persecution Experiences and Related Injuries of Sexually Minoritized Asylum Seekers and Refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. SEXES 2022. [DOI: 10.3390/sexes3040040] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
Introduction: Sexually minoritized men in the East, Horn, and Central Africa continue to flee from their countries, because of actual or feared persecution, to neighboring Kenya to seek protection and safety. However, there is limited research on their experiences and needs. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the persecution experiences of gay and bisexual asylum seekers and refugees in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Methods: We adapted McAdam’s Life-Story Interview (LSI) to develop a semi-structured interview guide. We used the interview guide to conduct one-time anonymous in-depth interviews with 19 gay and bisexual men recruited by purposive sampling. The study also included a photovoice component and written reflections. We transcribed the interviews verbatim, uploaded them to NVivo 12 plus, and analyzed the data using Braun and Clarke’s six-step thematic analysis framework. Results: The mean age of the participants was 26, with the largest age group being 18–24 (n = 9, 47%). We found six major themes: (1) The Anti-Homosexuality Act, (2) death punishment, (3) physical abuse, (4) sexual violence, (5) discrimination, and (6) injuries. Conclusions: Continued multi-layered discrimination across borders may have adverse physical health outcomes for gay and bisexual asylum seekers and refugees in the Nairobi Metropolitan Area. Further collaborative strategies may help to understand and develop culturally sensitive interventions to improve their health and well-being.
Collapse
|
3
|
Winskell K, Sabben G, Pruitt KL, Allen K, Findlay T, Stephenson R. Young Africans' representations of the origins of same-sex attraction and implications for sexual and mental health. CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY 2017; 19:366-380. [PMID: 27604244 DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2016.1225820] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
Sexual minorities are stigmatised in much of sub-Saharan Africa, restricting their access to sexual health services and undermining their mental health. Although public attitudes and social representations inform the experience of sexual stigma, little is known about how young Africans make sense of sexual diversity. We conducted a thematic analysis of 56 texts contributed by young people from 10 countries in response to a prompt in a scriptwriting competition inviting participants to 'tell a story about someone who is attracted to people of the same sex'. We analysed accounts of the origins of same-sex attraction, a prominent theme in the narratives. Two-thirds of the texts provide an explicit or implicit explanation, presenting same-sex attraction as innate (15/38) and/or the consequence of environmental influences (32/38), including parental behaviour, gender separation, trauma, foreign influences and evil spirits. Expressions of the potential to avert or cure same-sex attraction are common. Young people's sense-making around sexual diversity draws on available sociocultural and symbolic resources, some of which may be highly stigmatising, and reflects local, national and transnational influences. The need to explain same-sex attraction and the preponderance of harmful explanatory frameworks compounds sexual minority youth's vulnerability to sexual stigma, harmful coping strategies and mental health challenges.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Kate Winskell
- a Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health , Emory University , Atlanta , USA
| | - Gaëlle Sabben
- a Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health , Emory University , Atlanta , USA
| | - Kaitlyn L Pruitt
- a Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health , Emory University , Atlanta , USA
| | - Kristi Allen
- a Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health , Emory University , Atlanta , USA
| | - Trinity Findlay
- a Hubert Department of Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health , Emory University , Atlanta , USA
| | - Rob Stephenson
- b University of Michigan , School of Nursing , Ann Arbor , USA
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Rudrum S, Oliffe JL, Benoit C. Discourses of masculinity, femininity and sexuality in Uganda's Stand Proud, Get Circumcised campaign. CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY 2017; 19:225-239. [PMID: 27684495 DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2016.1214748] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/06/2023]
Abstract
This paper analyses discourses of masculinity, femininity and sexuality in Stand Proud, Get Circumcised, a public health campaign promoting circumcision as an HIV-prevention strategy in Uganda. The campaign includes posters highlighting the positive reactions of women to circumcised men, and is intended to support the national rollout of voluntary medical male circumcision. We offer a critical discourse analysis of representations of masculinity, femininity and sexuality in relation to HIV prevention. The campaign materials have a playful feel and, in contrast to ABC (Abstain, Be faithful, Use condoms) campaigns, acknowledge the potential for pre-marital and extra-marital sex. However, these posters exploit male anxieties about appearance and performance, drawing on hegemonic masculinity to promote circumcision as an idealised body aesthetic. Positioning women as the campaign's face reasserts a message that women are the custodians of family health and simultaneously perpetuates a norm of estrangement between men and their health. The wives' slogan, 'we have less chance of getting HIV', is misleading, because circumcision only directly prevents female-to-male HIV transmission. Reaffirming hegemonic notions of appearance- and performance-based heterosexual masculinity reproduces existing unsafe norms about masculinity, femininity and sexuality. In selling male circumcision, the posters fail to promote an overall HIV-prevention message.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Rudrum
- a Institute for Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada
| | - John L Oliffe
- b School of Nursing , University of British Columbia , Vancouver , British Columbia , Canada
| | - Cecilia Benoit
- c Department of Sociology , University of Victoria , Victoria , British Columbia , Canada
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Wahab A. "Homosexuality/Homophobia Is Un-African"?: Un-Mapping Transnational Discourses in the Context of Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill/Act. JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY 2015; 63:685-718. [PMID: 26503528 DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2015.1111105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/05/2023]
Abstract
This article un-maps the recent impasse between pro- and antigay mobilization around Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA, 2009-2014). Drawing on scholarly and social media sources, it summarizes the increasing influence of (U.S.) transnational evangelism that has precipitated a state-religious complex of "anticipatory political homophobia" in Uganda. If transnational evangelism against same-sex sexuality in Uganda has generated a strong reaction from global LGBT human-rights advocates, this article critiques this Western homotransnationalist response by analyzing its limited terms of operation, focusing on the ways in which Uganda is hailed into the biopolitical project of a Western queer modernity. The author focuses on the copresence between homotransnationalist mobilization and "homophobic anticipatory countermobilization" as (re)organizing/suturing a global ordering project that is deeply invested in biopolitics and necropolitics. This suggests that the global flashpointing of Uganda in the context of the AHA incites further questions concerning the transnationality of "gay human rights" discourse under neoliberalism.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Amar Wahab
- a School of Gender, Sexuality and Women's Studies , York University , Toronto , Ontario , Canada
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Lindan CP, Anglemyer A, Hladik W, Barker J, Lubwama G, Rutherford G, Ssenkusu J, Opio A, Campbell J. High-risk motorcycle taxi drivers in the HIV/AIDS era: a respondent-driven sampling survey in Kampala, Uganda. Int J STD AIDS 2015; 26:336-45. [PMID: 24970473 PMCID: PMC6787404 DOI: 10.1177/0956462414538006] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/16/2022]
Abstract
We evaluated motorcycle taxi ('boda-boda') drivers in Kampala for the prevalence of HIV/sexually transmitted infections. We used respondent-driven sampling to recruit a cross-sectional sample of boda-boda drivers. We collected data through audio computer-assisted self-administered interviews. Men were tested for HIV, syphilis serology using Rapid Plasma Reagin and enzyme immunoassay, and Chlamydia and gonorrhoea using urine polymerase chain reaction. We recruited 683 men. Median age was 26 years; 59.4% were single. The prevalence of HIV was 7.5% (95% CI 5.2-10.0), of positive syphilis serology was 6.1% (95% CI 4.3-8.1), of Chlamydia was 1.1% (95% CI 0.4-2.0), and of gonorrhoea was 1.2% (95% CI 0.1-1.2). Many men (67.8%) had both casual and regular partners, sex with other men (8.7%), and commercial sex (33.1%). Factors associated with having HIV included reporting a genital ulcer (odds ratio [OR] =2.4, 95% CI 1.4-4.4), drinking alcohol during last sex (OR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1-3.7), having 4-6 lifetime partners (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.0-4.8), and having one's last female partner be >24 years of age (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.2-6.6). Independent predictors of HIV included age ≥31 (adjusted OR (aOR) 5.8, 95% CI 1.5-48.5), having 4-6 partners (aOR 2.2, 95%CI 1.0-5.1), and self-report of a genital ulcer (OR 2.3, 95% CI 1.2-4.1). Only 39.2% of men were circumcised, and 36.9% had been HIV tested in the past. Male boda-boda drivers have a higher prevalence of HIV than the general population, and low frequency of preventive behaviours, such as circumcision and HIV testing. Targeted and intensified interventions for this group are warranted.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Christina P Lindan
- Global Health Sciences and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Andrew Anglemyer
- Global Health Sciences and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - Wolfgang Hladik
- Division of Global HIV/AIDS, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, USA
| | - Joseph Barker
- Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, US Department of State, Washington, DC, USA
| | - George Lubwama
- School of Public Health, Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
| | - George Rutherford
- Global Health Sciences and Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of California, San Francisco, CA, USA
| | - John Ssenkusu
- Division of Global HIV/AIDS, Center for Global Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Entebbe, Uganda
| | | | - James Campbell
- Department of Pediatrics, University of Maryland, Bethesda, MD, USA
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Nyanzi S. Dismantling reified African culture through localised homosexualities in Uganda. CULTURE, HEALTH & SEXUALITY 2013; 15:952-967. [PMID: 23767462 DOI: 10.1080/13691058.2013.798684] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/02/2023]
Abstract
Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 aimed at protecting the cherished culture of the people against emergent threats to the traditional heterosexual family. The Bill's justification, however, lay in myopic imaginings of a homogenous African-ness and pedestrian oblivion to pluralities within African sexualities. This paper revisits the debate that homosexuality is 'un-African'. Rhetoric analysis of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill exposes how dominant discourses of law, medicine, religion, geography and culture reinforce the view that homosexuality is foreign to Africa. Based on ethnography in contemporary Uganda, I explore how self-identified same-sex-loving individuals simultaneously claim their African-ness and their homosexuality. Their strategies include ethnic belonging, membership to kinship structures, making connections with pre-colonial histories of homosexuality, civic participation in democratic processes, national identity, organising of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, intersex and questioning support groups, language and nomenclature, visibility and voice in local communal activities, solidarity and adherence to cultural rituals. In present-day Uganda, same-sex-loving men, women and transgender people variously assert their African-ness.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Stella Nyanzi
- a Makerere Institute of Social Research , Kampala , Uganda
| |
Collapse
|
8
|
Strand C. Homophobia as a barrier to comprehensive media coverage of the Ugandan anti-homosexual bill. JOURNAL OF HOMOSEXUALITY 2012; 59:564-579. [PMID: 22500993 DOI: 10.1080/00918369.2012.665679] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/31/2023]
Abstract
The Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill of October 2009 caused an international outcry and sparked intense debate in the local media. This article explores to what degree a discriminatory social environment manifests itself in the Ugandan print media and discusses the potential implications for media's coverage of contentious policy options such as the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. A content analysis of 115 items from two daily newspapers (the government-owned New Vision and the privately owned the Daily Monitor, between October and December 2009) indicates the existence of two separate house styles; this is in spite of the fact that both newspapers reproduce the surrounding society's homophobia, albeit with different frequency. Unlike the New Vision, the Daily Monitor includes coverage on homophobia and discrimination, as well as provides space for criticism of the Bill. By acknowledging discrimination and its negative impact, the newspaper de-legitimizes homophobia and problematizes the proposed Anti-homosexuality Bill for their readers.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Cecilia Strand
- Department of Informatics and Media Science, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden.
| |
Collapse
|