Homosexuality, pornography, and other ‘modern threats’ – The deployment of sexuality in recent laws and public discourses in Uganda

Abstract

In recent years, the Ugandan government has proposed a number of laws that attempt to control the sexual conduct of the Ugandan population. The much-debated Anti-Homosexuality Bill, signed by Museveni in February 2014 but overturned on constitutional grounds in August 2014, is only the most well-known. Further examples include legal measures related to HIV/AIDS, defilement, prostitution, and pornography. This article analyzes why and in which contexts these laws and recent public debates on sexuality have emerged and what consequences they entail. I argue that they must be seen in relation to ongoing power struggles at the local and national level – between men and women, youth and elders, state, and citizens. Based on discourse analysis and drawing on ethnographic fieldwork, I show how both state and non-state actors exploit popular concerns about recent processes of social change and instrumentalize ‘sexuality’ to extend their control and reinforce a normative order based on patriarchal values.