What is it about?
In Uganda, Facebook allows space for a visible queer opposition to the anti‐LGBTQ movement and for the realities of the Ugandan LGBTQ community—locally known as kuchu—to emerge through individuals’ sexual self‐expression and self‐knowledge. Also, to avoid identification, arrests, and punishments through state surveillance, kuchus use Facebook to create a list of safe virtual friends. Finally, the rise of a virtual queer counterpublic and its global discourse has deepened transnational stereotypes and encouraged vigorous attacks by the Ugandan government, including indiscriminate arrests. Despite these risks and challenges, kuchus’ use of Facebook demonstrates its value for creating a counterpublic.
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Why is it important?
In Uganda, online communication increasingly plays a crucial role in mobilizing social and political protests led by gay men themselves. Different subjectivities take shape, although they cannot yet be expressed openly in the offline world. Although local LGBTQ activists were not solely responsible for turning the tide against the death penalty for gays in 2009, 2014, or 2019, they are the most active voice in challenging dominant publics and their heterosexist practices. Their fight for rights continues.
Perspectives
As a gay man from Brazil, writing this article was a great pleasure. Although the Ugandan and Brazilian realities differ, there are similarities, such as a strong lobby for heterosexual norms, a high number of hate crimes against sexual minorities, and the presence of heterosexist religious morals. I hope you find this article as great as I found writing it.
Luiz Henrique Amoedo
Universidade de Coimbra
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Kuchu Counterpublic on Facebook: Gay Men’s Challenge to Heterosexist Policies in Uganda, Anthropology & Humanism, March 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1111/anhu.12318.
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