Ugandan Bishop Pushes for LGBT Rights

Ugandan Bishop Christopher Senyonjo spoke Wednesday at the Harvard Kennedy School about his efforts to combat LGBT discrimination in his native country, where homosexuality is illegal.

Senyonjo, founder of the St. Paul’s Reconciliation and Equality Centre for LGBTQ/Straight Alliance in Kampala, Uganda, discussed his efforts to bring together religious and secular leadership together to combat discrimination against gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in Uganda.

Senyonjo is a renowned figure in the world activist community, said Timothy P. McCarthy ’93, director of the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights program at the Carr Center for Human Rights Policy.

“He is often referred to as the Desmond Tutu of Uganda,” McCarthy said.

Senyonjo’s charitable foundation is currently addressing a proposed anti-homosexuality bill drafted by the Ugandan parliament.

If passed, the bill would introduce the death penalty for people who are found to be gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender.

“The bill is inhuman and draconian,” said Senyonjo. “We hope it will die.”

The bill also says that family members or anyone failing to report instances of homosexuality will be imprisoned.

Senyonjo said the foundation is taking steps to oppose the bill by lobbying members of parliament and petitioning against it.

Senyonjo’s advocacy on behalf of the LGBT community is also illegal, McCarthy said.

“He could be killed,” he said. “Every day, this is an act of civil disobedience.”

Senyonjo’s visit to Harvard is one of several stops he will make during a three-month tour of the United States. The trip will culminate in a UN-sponsored gathering of leaders from the fields of faith, human rights, and LGBT advocacy in October.

McCarthy said that the goal of the UN program­—called Compass to Compassion—is to bring together leaders from religious and secular communities to discuss LGBT global equality.

Senyonjo’s talk was the first public event sponsored by the Sexuality, Gender, and Human Rights program at the Carr Center. McCarthy and his colleagues established the program this summer with funds from a Ford Foundation grant.

The program intends to bring gender and sexuality issues to the center of human rights discussion, McCarthy said.

—Staff writer Eliza M. Nguyen can be reached at enguyen@college.harvard.edu.