Kampala Uganda: Top-Bottom Role Peddling Is Sexism And Objectifies LGBTIQQ Defeating The Purpose Of Humanism

The Idea of writing a story of abuse

A friend of mine (Paschal), is on the path to a PhD in Social Work in the UK, and is a mentor who introduced me to a group of Gay writers from Kenya. The friend usually sends me links with a variety of thematic topics or article titles that we both discuss after reading. I find the articles very intriguing always given the fact that they provide another perspective about common issues we talk about regularly. This time around, my friend sent me a link showing how food justice issues can be used to remedy abuses for marginalized communities. It was a classic example of superior-inferior dichotomy; valued humans versus humanoid; Enforcers Vs. Abused and oppressor-oppressed dualism.... See: Food Justice and Sexism. Food justice? Okay, I get it. That moment when one is assured of say housing/shelter, no harassment for who or what they believe in, one gets the right treatment and food security is assured. You get my point?



Advocacy-splaining and how it silences differing voices

I was writing an article on LGBTIQQ power roles and how they are used/misused to, among others, shut down voices expressing a fuller dignified life. I was thinking of such nouveau concepts like: advocacy-splaining (the tendency for LGBTIQQ activists who have been longer in the game taking over stories of pain from their would be beneficiaries and manipulating them to reflect only one form of narrative); activi-splaining (the tendency for LGBTIQQ activists who have been longer in the game, to dismiss actual needs from their would be beneficiaries and manipulating them to reflect only one form of need; advocacy-shaming (the tendency for LGBTIQQ activists who have been longer in the game, to maintain their own stories as the only single stories and package/hegemonize them in such a way that the narrative reflects the entire LGBTIQQ movement; and activi-shaming (the tendency for LGBTIQQ activists who have been longer in the game, to deliberately push out all other stories of pain from their would be beneficiaries and making sure that no outlet is available to represent divergent views). At the back of my mind was this question: why are there abuses and disabling vulnerability within what should be LGBTIQQ safe spaces despite over 2 decades of funding on the African continent for LGBTIQQ social organizing where umbrella organizations have had lots of money channeled through them to support causes? Adichie Ngozi Chimamanda warns of "Danger of a single story" which in its telling, may both be a stereotype and incomplete! Top-bottom roles are stereotypes and are incomplete stories! In one of the Facebook updates, Ninah Jordan, a Transman shares the pains of being a man in a woman's body. There has to be an environment where Ninah and all those like Ninah get help. See: Feeling really manly and then BAM! Your periods hit. Muwonge is a young gay man living with HIV. To be gay means that Muwonge has to enjoy a fuller life even when there is the issue of HIV. See: Living with HIV as an able bodied gay person in Uganda.

Dignity's Dignitism
Is the LGBTIQQ movement pushing for an "-ism" it has not understood so well? Is the LGBTIQQ movement on the African continent pushing for an "-ism" it needs help to understand so well?I started with "dignitism!" The goal of the African continent LGBTIQQ movement building should be to entrench structures that promote dignity of persons (I mean all persons whether straight or otherwise). LGBTIQQ in Africa should talk of dignitism (from dignity) and use Western world models as lessons to learn from but not transplant them wholesale from say, Sweden or Norway and implement in Africa without gauging what works and what it takes to sustain such initiatives! 

Copying The Feminism Playbook

An enduring fibre of say, women marches, women movements  or women causes is the continued call to arms to entrench the value of womanhood that patriarchy pulverizes at all opportunities. We are talking of women rights here. Women talk of feminism as a wholesome womanhood health. We are all children of women. Therefore to them, full health means theirs and that of their children. This means entire communities, societies and nations. A social equality where there is no need to show strength in order for one to be masculine or feminine for that matter. In the case of families this meant that both spouses share roles equally. In other words both are providers and producers. It is this, according to Bell Hooks in her book titled: Ain't I a woman; Black women and feminism, that would provide a freedom where it is possible to have positive social equality that grants all humans the opportunity to shape their destinies in the most healthy and communally productive way. This, she continues can only be possible without racism or sexism (page 117). Hooks and other feminists provides blueprints to be used to address issues such as those arising from racial polarity which causes White Supremacy; sexual polarity which is the fertile ground for male dominance; and gender polarity which causes tendencies that devalue a woman.  The LGBTIQQ can pick a leaf or two from these pushback models.

The Voice

The friend I talked of earlier (the PhD-candidate in a prestigious UK university), read an earlier draft of this article and immediately pointed this out: "The top-bottom role is heteronormatizing the LGBTIQQ sex roles. It disempowers and at the same time disrupts meaningful life fulfillment by placing too much power in hands of the few. It means control is in the hands of a few and it reeks of nuanced patriarchy."

There are four enduring consequences that arise

1. Continuing with heteronormative aspects of life while running on homonormative fuel. This is counter-dignity! Identity polarity produces grounds for a functional supremacy for a few. This also means social mobility for those very few who keep a close-knit circle and lead perpetually because leadership becomes a cash -cow.
2. Masculine abuser and feminine victim dualism thrives and this is fodder for caricature by the heteronormative which means a justification for all forms of oppression. The LGBTIQQ also does not help matters when it continues with this trend that maintains the image of a male-dominance (masculine abuser) very much seen in the heteronormative institution.
3. The sex-identity-gender (SIG) polarity among the LGBTIQQ leads to some being devalued, dismissed as undesirables and driven further underground (three D's). Big questions linger. Has there been a concerted effort to understand the pains of the Trans-persons for starters? Are leaders reducing on the hefty allowances they pay themselves and instead using some of that money to continue propping recurrent LGBTIQQ work ranging from housing, short life skills trainings to income generating activities? These are some of the non-traditional questions that are unfortunately silenced.
4. All differing/dissenting voices are silenced by all means. Sadly! There is need to rock the boat.

But how does all "this" come about? What is the big deal?

A culture that promotes peddling sex roles, reduces humans to objects of fantasy and in this case many have gone on an adventure spree that is not only addictive but creates contexts for oppressors and victims.

These contexts establish the masculine abusers and feminine victims. The victims are silenced in many ways!

I have worked with the LGBTIQQ community for quite some time now. With a team of many others I cannot mention here, we helped mobilize a large number of respondents during the first ever HIV survey for the Uganda LGBTIQQ. I know so well, how it was said: "I was a spy of the Uganda government and that I was injecting poison in the LGBTIQQ people's bloodstream! I personally designed a comprehensive mental health programme and shared it with some individuals who in turn used it to solicit funding. I have used my personal resources to elevate the status of the LGBTIQQ in Uganda and internationally through my writings and other forms of works. I have never in my professional life left supporting the Ugandan LGBTIQQ. Currently we have the online Trauma Counselling Service (@onlinetraumasupport) as well as the Africa Crisis Support.

Most clients begin with asking if I have lubricants, dental dams, femidoms and condoms. I let them make their points and then I chip in: “ what do you do to earn a living?” or “what makes you enjoy a life that is not heteronormative?”

This questioning mode is mostly geared at eliciting the idea of subsistence for a client before me or under my care. It is also tailored to suit age-groups.  My clients seem to take it at the ethical level whenever I ask such questions and I go ahead to explain that I am asking most of my questions from a combination of models including ethics. I combine objective-goal orientation,  consequentialist,  rehabilitative, functional and utilitarian models in all my sessions.

My work as an LGBTIQQ counsellor since late 1990’s, introduced me to so many versions or descriptions presented by the LGBTIQQ as they strive to define and refine themselves. There are influencers whose lopsided version tends to promote the idea that to be  a homo, one has to be  aggressively sexual and say, not think of the larger aspects of life! 

Hence the “homo-sexual” internalization seen in many who are obsessed with actualizing it at all expenses as if all there is to being a "homo-sexual" is to be a part of some form of sex-chain or hierarchy. You know the one where one has or is had. Where one is someone’s catch and therefore can be so called by others in a community or society. Unfortunately, beyond this goal, many do not think of the fuller human being who is self recognizing, self-preserving, dignified, and an organism. The one who can use critical or assertive skills to pursue quality life activities. The one who can say no to unwelcome touches or groping. The one who can choose self care of destructive practices. The one who balances homo-sexual and homo-human selves.

The “homo-human” is feared among the LGBTIQQ because this one calls for responsibility, accountability and thinking logically. The “homo-sexual” on the other hand is the celebrated narcissistic, a show off, a player and purveyor of commodification who sells or buys into this context.

If “homo-sexual” can be remedied, it means one has to be ready to act smarter. Smartness!  That very amorphous word which so much as means both a well attired/dressed person and a  critical thinker. But, unfortunately, it is taken at its dress value too for most homo-sexuals. In deciding to only embrace the dress side of smartness and not the larger life critical problem-solving side, many lose out.

It is no wonder many are quick to peddle the top-bottom roles or assume the masculine abuser and feminine victim mode. The words masculine abusers and feminine victims are used to categorize means within which oppression, coercion, suppression, subjugation and pushback thrive in the Homonormative world. They are not used as biological dichotomies, although they can be applied thus too.

To be compassionate, zealous, vigilante, ambitious and a grassroot worker or feminine are not celebrated, they are instead used to manipulate an unsuspecting person who ends up being exploited. Hetero-patriarchy tendencies are repeated and it is these that build homo-patriarchy. It is this tendency that promotes further abuses among a community that is already suffering from heteronormative constrictive laws and social structures. It is given that the feminine must submit to the masculine who through blatant or subtle manner are able to go on with oppressive treatment which the victim does not question for fear of losing opportunities. It is also through this that we are seeing an accumulation of advantages while ransoming those they exploit in any way. The flip side to this is that many leaders have now accumulated capital in form of real estates. I dare funders who for instance send money to Africa to check this out either quietly or loudly.  A genuine look into why so much suffering still goes on in the LGBTIQQ communities in Africa despite well intentioned organizations coming up to address the very suffering or abuses can never be complete unless there is accountability and a culture of asset reporting initiated.

When the victims pushback they are said to be unappreciative of the long drawn struggles the so called historical leaders built to defend the LGBTIQQ in the first instance. Among the LGBTIQQ, there are no structures to create positive functional internal pushback against the masculine abusers or any form of abuse by those who seem more savvy because of accumulated financial might which funds are used to intimidate! 

The pains reported by victims ranging from groping genitals or buttocks, unwelcome passes, assault, lewd remarks, outing persons without their consent, neglecting providing full care for HIV+ve persons,  lack of readiness to take on STIs management, not addressing eviction from houses and dismissing demands for rehabilitative services. These are not addressed and are dismissed as very un-homo-sexual, going against the grain of narcissistic aura built in the “homo-sexual” image. It is no wonder that the first things on a list of accountability by many LGBTIQQ organizations around say HIV work reads like: “we give out condoms,” we provide lubricants,” we provide dental dams,”….. But, if one were to ask about the other attendant holistic care for an LGBTIQQ that addresses day-to-day needs such as common questions that arise during say, dysphoria or drug toxicity many organizations then cry foul or claim that the one questioning “does not know the effort we have put into advocacy or creating visibility for the LGBTIQQ.” HIV care has been reduced to poster-pinning, condom and lubricant distribution. In Uganda, one sees lawyers being funded to run "HIV" programmes targeting LGBTIQQ. This it is explained that the lawyers have been around and are visible when it comes to fighting for LGBTIQQ rights. The medical doctors who actually dress wounds, do incisions and drainage at the grassroots and even provide food/cash handouts from their own hard earned money are dismissed. One reason is because medical doctors are not allowed by law to advertise their accomplishments. This is their undoing as they end up missing out on much needed funding provided by funders. The painful issue here is that funders have also created a clique of poster-figures who in fact are barricades and censorship guards. The cliques take it upon themselves to convince funders that it is they who need all the money and no other groups. Do a cursory inquiry in Nigeria, Ghana, Botswana, Uganda, Republic of South Africa, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Lesotho and you will find this trend. Upcoming grassroot organizations are silenced and rendered penniless. How? By not getting any reference support from the historical organizations which see this as competition! 

This is historical-shaming and it is detrimental to the entire movement. It misses out on optimal use of resource, is a constraint to exploration of the diversity of needs faced by the LGBTIQQ, it has ensured that those who can question the masculine abusers are kicked out/silenced. Those not peddling the top-bottom roles are said to be out of place or not in line with the set masculine abuser and feminine victim dichotomy. Yet the LGBTIQQ means: multi-siamese identity with unique needs. Lesbian issues need a different approach to address them as is Transgender identity or LGBTIQQ facing house eviction and so many other needs.

The saving grace is that there are those who are pushing back to create space for a fuller “homo-human” and hopefully the funding world will come to their help too. In the heteronormative world the desire for either a girl or boy child has had its gender expansive repercussions. This same scenario is repeated when the homonormative world only peddles top-bottom roles as this makes planning to accommodate gender expansive issues or other matters faced by LGBTIQQ so hard or continuously ignored. Dignitism is the way to go! It is humanism in action.

The pictures below are exclusively from a facebook account of a client we reached out to see:https://www.facebook.com/ninah.kukiriza