Uganda’s Anti-Gay Act Cost the Country $1.6 Billion, Report Says
A pro-LGBTQ group says Uganda has lost potentially up to $1.6 billion in GDP following the passage of a law criminalizing homosexuality.
A new report finds that Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act has potentially cost the country billions of dollars in the year since it became law.
The report by Open for Business, a coalition of global companies that prize LGBTQ inclusion, claims that Uganda has lost a minimum of $470 million and as much as $1.6 billion, a sum that comprises between 0.9% and 3.2% of the country’s gross domestic product.
The report also claims the law could result in combined losses of anywhere between $2.3 billion and $8.3 billion over five years if it is not repealed.
The report identified eight critical areas in which the anti-gay law has impacted Uganda’s economy, including international aid, foreign direct investment, tourism and national reputation, public health, national productivity, policing and legal costs, human capital and talent flight, and trade relations.
Uganda could face a loss of anywhere from $9 million to $99 million in tourism as a result of the loss of its reputation among Western nations and is estimated to lose between $23 million and $58 million from LGBTQ workers’ mental health issues, absenteeism, and diminished productivity.
The report also predicts a “talent flight” of between $3 million to $24 million in lost productivity stemming from an estimated 5,000 to 15,000 LGBTQ individuals who will flee the African nation to avoid persecution.
“The evidence is now clear,” the report reads. “The Anti-Homosexuality Act makes it harder for Uganda to foster a dynamic and diversified modern economy that is attractive to investors, tourists and skilled workers.”
The report predicts that the law’s crackdown on clinics that specialize in LGBTQ health care issues or HIV prevention will lead to higher rates of untreated HIV, which will impose an estimated financial burden of between $70 million and $312 million.
The law, signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in May 2023, imposes various penalties, including potentially up to life sentences for engaging in same-sex relations, or for “recruitment, promotion, and funding” of same-sex activities.
The law imposes a death sentence for “aggravated homosexuality,” which covers acts such as seducing or coercing someone of the same sex into sexual liaisons, or potentially transmitting HIV.
Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of the controversial law in April, although the five-judge panel did strike down some components of the law as unconstitutional. Those provisions included prosecuting straight Ugandans who failed to “snitch” on neighbors they believed to be gay or committing homosexual acts and punishing business owners or homeowners whose premises are used to commit homosexuality.
The law has been condemned by human rights advocates and by much of the global West, including U.S. President Joe Biden and Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church — which opposes same-sex marriage and transgender identity.
In January, the U.S. removed Uganda from the list of nations eligible to benefit from the African Growth and Opportunity Act.
According to the Open for Business report, the suspension of Uganda’s eligibility could cost the country half a million dollars in future tariff payments. In August, the World Bank announced it would stop granting new loans to Uganda in response to the law, which violated the bank’s social values. That loss of foreign aid is estimated to cost Uganda between $276 million and $1 billion annually.
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