Securing the Heterosexual State: A study of the political debate surrounding homosexuality in Uganda

Abstract

In 2009 a Ugandan Member of Parliament presented the so called Anti Homosexuality Bill to the Ugandan parliament. The Bill offers extensive restrictions in order to combat homosexuality, which is already a crime in Uganda. For example the Bill suggests death penalty for so called “aggravated homosexuality”. This study examines the political debate surrounding homosexuality in contemporary Uganda in order to gain an understanding of how homosexuality can emerge as something that warrants executions by the state. In this thesis I suggest that it is possible to think of the Anti Homosexuality Bill as a part of a heteronormative constitution of the nation-state. The study has been based upon poststructuralist theories concerning national identity, security and heteronormativity. In order to analyze the material I have used Norman Fairclough’s three-dimensional model for Critical Discourse Analysis as a basis for my methodological model. The results show that in the debate surrounding homosexuality in Uganda, homosexuality has been presented as a learned behavior that is foreign to Ugandan culture. By ascribing heteronormative values on the people of Uganda, homosexuality has been portrayed as a threat to Ugandan national identity and security. Nevertheless, this study also shows that in this debate, there are alternative presentations of homosexuality that challenge the heteronormative constitution of the Ugandan state.