Over the last decade, countless news stories, focusing on the difficult situation of LGBTQI people in Africa, have contributed to a Western perception of Africa as an exceptionally homophobic place. Perhaps the most extreme example cited, and the one that has attracted the most media attention, was the passage of the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act in Uganda. Supporters of the bill initially proposed the death penalty for anyone caught practicing homosexuality, though the signed bill reduced this punishment to life imprisonment after intense international pressure. Nevertheless, public support of such measures in Uganda prompted terror among the country’s lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex populations. The law was later struck down by the courts. ...
