British PM Warns Anti-Gay Nations: Observe Human Rights or Risk Aids Funds

British Prime Minister David Cameron has given warning: Anti-gay nations belonging to the Commonwealth that persist in persecuting sexual minorities may see some of the aid money they receive from the UK dry up, reported BBC News on Oct. 30.

Similar warnings in the past have provoked defiant words, but in the case of Uganda may have played a part in delaying implementation of the so-called "Death to Gays" bill, a proposal advanced by anti-gay parliamentarian David Bahati after several anti-gay American evangelicals visited Uganda.

Cameron recently attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Australia, where he addressed the issue of anti-gay laws in some of the Commonwealth member nations. Such laws are usually remnants of British colonialism, and were imposed on local populations by the British government. Now, that same government may take punitive action in the name of seeing anti-gay Commonwealth member countries comply with human rights expectations.

"Ending the bans on homosexuality was one of the recommendations of an internal report into the future relevance of the Commonwealth," the BBC News article said. "Mr. Cameron's threat applies only to one type of bilateral aid known as general budget support, and would not reduce the overall amount of aid to any one country."

The article noted that the African nation Malawi--where a gay couple was imprisoned for celebrating an engagement party, then convicted and given a maximum 14-year sentence before being pardoned--has already seen its aid affected.

"Some 41 nations within the 54-member Commonwealth have laws banning homosexuality," noted the BBC News article.

"This is an issue where we are pushing for movement, we are prepared to put some money behind what we believe," Cameron told the BBC in a recent interview. "But I'm afraid that you can't expect countries to change overnight.

"Britain is one of the premier aid givers in the world," added Cameron. "We want to see countries that receive our aid adhering to proper human rights."

Continued the prime minister, "We are saying that is one of the things that determines our aid policy, and there have been particularly bad examples where we have taken action."

At least one Ugandan journalist expressed puzzlement over the British government's emphasis on human rights for gays.

"This is your money and you know where you want to put it but we face very serious issues of corruption, poverty, education and hunger," said Charles Odongpho of the Uganda Radio Network. "These are the most critical issues for us, not homosexual rights."

But the "Death to Gays" bill shocked GLBT advocates the world over with its provisions, including the death penalty for gay men who repeatedly have sex with other men, or even have sex with another man once if infected with HIV

No similar punishment for men living with HIV who have sex with women was suggested.

The "Death to Gays" bill also threatens heterosexuals with stiff prison sentences if they know about gay relationships and do not report them to the police.

Malawi and Uganda are not the only African nations to promote extreme anti-gay legislation.

"Nigeria's Senate is currently discussing a bill banning same-sex marriage, that includes penalties for anyone witnessing or aiding a same-sex marriage," the BBC reported.

In Ghana, a regional minister recently vowed to "get rid of" all gays, and tasked the national police with rounding up and arresting gays en masse.

The only nation in the world to enshrine a guarantee of equal rights to gays and lesbians is South Africa, but even there social attitudes make being gay--or, especially, lesbian--dangerous. Men who claim to believe that sex with a man will "cure" them routinely rape lesbians in South Africa.

Cameron did not suggest that the problem could be addressed within the two years before the next meeting of Commonwealth leaders, scheduled for 2012 in Sri Lanka. Rather, he said, efforts to secure human rights for gays in homophobic nations would be a matter of prolonged, sustained pressure, reported British newspaper the Guardian in an Oct. 30 article.

"We are not just talking about it," Cameron said in the BBC interview. "We are also saying that British aid should have more strings attached."

Even as a candidate, Cameron, a Tory, was supportive of GLBT equality and spoke of such legal and social parity as being part of conservatism. Cameron went so far as to predict that the first gay or lesbian British prime minister would probably come from the ranks of the Tory party, rather than the liberal Labor party.