US group accused of fanning anti-gay agenda in Africa

A group of human rights organisations in Africa have renewed their calls for the American multinational Intel Corporation to dismiss a senior employee over his alleged involvement in fanning the growing anti-LGBTQ+ sentiment in several countries, including Kenya and Uganda. The Guardian reports in a change.org petition, supported by more than a dozen organisations, the rights groups claim Greg Slater, Intel’s vice-president of global regulatory affairs, has been ‘actively responsible for exporting, financing, and spreading hate and homophobia’ on the continent for decades, through the American conservative organisation, Family Watch International. The activists accuse Family Watch International – which is run by Slater’s wife, Sharon – of lobbying high-ranking African leaders and lawmakers to block LGBTQ rights – allegations that have dogged the Slaters for years. The organisation is described as a ‘hate group’ by the US civil rights group Southern Poverty Law Centre. ‘Family Watch International has sponsored trips for politicians and diplomats from Kenya, Uganda and other African countries to train them on their extremist agenda against homosexuality, sexuality education and reproductive rights,’ said Jedidah Maina of the Trust for Indigenous Culture and Health, the Kenyan non-profit that filed the petition. ‘Many of these politicians go on to sponsor or support legislation that seeks to persecute innocent Africans.’ The organisations supporting the petition claim that Family Watch International backed Uganda’s recent anti-gay laws, which were passed in May and decree the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts. They claim that the organisation has been active in other countries such as Ghana and Kenya, which have witnessed moves to introduce similar legislation over the past year – and that Slater’s alleged involvement in ‘anti LGBTQ+ advocacy’ goes against Intel’s public support for LGBTQ+ rights.

On its website, the organisation categorically denies these claims saying: ‘Despite media reports to the contrary, Family Watch has never advocated for or lobbied in favour of Uganda’s anti-homosexual Bill, nor were we ever involved in promoting Uganda’s previous anti-homosexual Bill – in fact, we opposed them both. Family Watch has never supported any efforts in Africa to promote anti-homosexual Bills.’ But The Guardian notes rights groups insist that the opposite is true. ‘There is nothing organic about the wave of anti-homosexuality Bills we are seeing,’ said Muthoni Ngugi, the head of the East Africa Legal Service Network, one of the organisations supporting the petition. Following an inter-parliamentary conference on ‘family values and sovereignty’ – hosted by Family Watch International in Uganda in April and attended by leaders from 22 African countries – Kenyan MP Peter Kaluma vowed to table an anti-gay Bill in the country’s Parliament. 

Full report in The Guardian