“Don’t Say Gay” arrives abroad
  March 23, 2023 Ramadan Mubarak, Meteor readers, I hope everyone observing is able to find reflection, community, and anything else you seek. I’ve been re-reading these pieces on Ramadan from The Meteor’s Shannon Melero and Ayesha Johnson. If you missed them the first time, I highly recommend them now. In today’s newsletter, we look at Uganda’s latest draconian law criminalizing LGBTQ+ identity itself and how these cruel measures got their start. (Spoiler alert: It’s colonialism. It’s always colonialism.) Oh, and French scientists have announced that a small, vicious being indigenous to Corsica— you know, like Napoleon—is actually a unique (and adorable) species of cat-fox. Nous jurons allégeance! But first: the news. Booking a flight to Corsica, Bailey Wayne Hundl  WHAT’S GOING ONNo, really, do NOT say “gay”: On Tuesday, with an overwhelming 387-2 majority, the Ugandan parliament passed a law making it illegal to identify as LGBTQ+. Uganda has a long history of oppressive measures like this; same-sex intercourse has been illegal since British colonial rule. But this new legislation bans anyone from even identifying as LGBTQ+ publicly, charging that claiming the identity is “promoting” it. The law also authorizes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” a broad term covering many offenses—including having sex while HIV-positive. Speaker Anita Among congratulated the chamber, saying, “Whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the people of Uganda.” David Bahati, another lawmaker, claimed during debate, “Our creator God is happy [about] what is happening.” But according to Ugandan LGBTQ+ advocate Frank Mugisha, “The last time [anti-gay] legislation was around, there were cases of suicide…[and] this law is worse than the one that was here before.” This is the first law to explicitly ban identifying as LGBTQ+, but over 30 African countries have banned same-sex relations. Interestingly, though, if you go back a few centuries, many African countries (including Uganda) had a long history of embracing queerness—before British colonizers criminalized it and snuffed it out. And now, journalists point out, right-wing American groups have been picking up where the British left off. The Alliance Defending Freedom (which is also behind the lawsuit seeking to ban the abortion pill in the States…and those disingenuous “progressive Jesus” Super Bowl ads) has funneled over $100k into sponsoring anti-gay laws internationally; Focus on the Family has contributed over a million. So if anyone tries to paint the genocide of queer people as something happening “over there,” just remember: It starts here. You can support queer Ugandans trying to live their lives by donating here. AND:
 COME ON, LOOK AT THAT FACE! (PHOTO BY MARTIN BOONE)  A 🍕 OF HISTORYCan We Pass the Equal Rights Amendment Already?It’s Women’s History Month. And every week, a Meteor collective member recounts a piece of women’s history that resonates with them. Today, we remember the (still yet-to-be-passed) Equal Rights Amendment.  (PHOTO BY ANN E. ZELLE/GETTY IMAGES) Yesterday marked the 51st anniversary of Congress passing the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), which stated—concisely and, to our ear, perfectly—that “equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the Unites States or by any state on account of sex.” But after that remarkable vote, conservative activists rallied against the amendment and it failed to be ratified by a supermajority of the states in time for a Congressionally-imposed deadline of 1982. (The revocation of that deadline, which would allow for its ratification, is still pending in Congress.) Here, a young girl attends the 1978 ERA March in Washington, D.C., wearing white to honor the suffragettes who marched in the same city for the same cause 65 years earlier. Her sign—“not when I’m old”—probably sounded like a joke at the time, but she must be in her late 50s now. Let’s honor her wishes soon.  FOLLOW THE METEOR    Thank you for reading The Meteor! Got this from a friend?
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