There's been a recent wave of anti-gay laws in Africa. It's a strange phenomena, given that gay rights in the west has been accelerating to a pace I never thought it would achieve.
To make things even weirder, it turns out that a lot of the impetus for African anti-gay bills comes from western organizations. Further, their current laws against homosexuality are mostly vestiges of colonial (usually British) laws. Ironic, given that Britain is now one of the more gay-friendly countries.
So these African countries are taking laws imposed on them by the west (but not actually used by the west anymore) and expanding them on the advice of westerners (who are no longer welcome at home.) And that's what I don't get about this: Africans have become understandably sceptical of western advice over the years, so why are they so quick to take western advice that the west doesn't follow?
One explanation is that they see our adoption of gay rights as a western taint on the concept. Rather than see homophobic laws as western ideas so bad even the west has left behind, they're seeing it as evidence that gay rights is part of western decadence.
Another, more sinister explanation is that this is nothing personal against gays, they're mearly an easy scapegoat. If western religious nuts are going to come in and demonize a group at their own expense, then that's a great deal for a government who could use a convenient enemy to distract their people from the state of the nation.
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