This was especially used throughout India.
For most of the past two centuries, it was illegal to be gay in many regions of the world. Remnants of British colonialism have undoubtedly shaped anti-LGBTQ sentiment around the world.
But how does British colonialism affect anti-LGBTQ laws in different countries today?
British colonialism’s anti-homosexuality laws are still in force in the centers of former British colonies within continents such as Asia, Oceania and Africa.
It is currently illegal to be gay in some 69 countries, roughly two-thirds of which were once under British colonial rule.
However, anti-LGBTQ laws implemented due to British colonialism can be assumed to have had the strongest impact in Asia.
Before the introduction of anti-LGBTQ laws by British colonialism, there is substantial evidence that individuals who identified as LGBTQ were treated equally alongside heterosexuals throughout Indian history.
For example, ancient The Kama Sutra recognizes the reality of transgender and non-binary people.
The book that explores sexuality, eroticism and emotional fulfillment devotes an entire chapter to homosexual sexual positions.
Kinnar, also known as Hijra, has been recognized as the third gender since ancient times.
What Changed?
Before India legalized same-sex relationships in 2018, at least one billion people lived in a territory with anti-LGBTQ laws.
This change in cultural perspective can be related to a specific rule that first developed in India and to one man’s attempt to “modernize” the territory.
While there were several penal codes in use throughout the British colonies, the Indian Penal Code (IPC), was drafted by the British historian Lord Thomas Babington Macaulay and came into force in 1862.
This was especially used throughout India.
Lord Macaulay said the IPC would “modernize” India’s civilization and be a “benefit” to that country.
It contained Article 377, which stated that anyone who committed “voluntary carnal intercourse with any man, woman or animal against the order of nature” would be punished with imprisonment or fine.
In many other regions they continued to rule, the British used the IPC as a Eurocentric basis for their criminal legislation.
Of the several former colonies in Asia, including Pakistan, Singapore, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Brunei, Myanmar and Sri Lanka, 377 countries still have anti-LGBTQ legislation in place today.
Penalties range from 2 to 20 years in prison.
Britain acknowledges its colonial past
In April 2018, then-Prime Minister Theresa May pushed Commonwealth countries to change current anti-LGBTQ laws left over from British colonial control during a Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting.
May said she understood Britain’s colonial history played an important role in anti-LGBTQ laws. She said:
“I am very aware that these laws are often imposed by my country.
“They were wrong then and they are wrong now.”
She also used her address to expressly acknowledge British guilt without offering a formal apology:
“As Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, I deeply regret that such laws were introduced and the legacy of discrimination, violence and death that continues today.”
Following a court ruling decriminalizing anti-LGBTQ laws in Trinidad and Tobago, Justice Devindra Rampersad of the state’s High Court found that sections 13 and 16 of the state’s Sexual Offenses Act are:
“Unconstitutional, illegal, void, void and of no effect to the extent that these laws criminalize any act constituting consensual sexual conduct between adults.”
Trinidadian Anglican Bishop Victor Gill appeared in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today Program in 2018 in response to Britain publicly denouncing its role in anti-LGBTQ laws across British colonies.
While criticizing the verdict on radio, Bishop Victor Gill branded Theresa May’s remarks as a kind of “neo-colonialism” without seeing the irony that anti-LGBTQ laws were introduced by British colonial rule.
This interpretation reflects Britain’s “white rescue industrial complex” which again follows countries in the third world, similar to its colonial past, and expects changes and reforms to happen according to their ideals.
The term was developed by Nigerian writer Teju Cole in 2012.
“The White Savior Industrial Complex isn’t about justice, it’s about having a great emotional experience that validates privilege…
“There’s a lot more to doing good work than ‘making a difference.’
“There is the principle of first do no harm.
“There is the idea that those being helped should be consulted on matters that concern them.”
For Britain, changing anti-LGBTQ laws within its former colonies relies on aligning itself with what is considered moral in Western Europe.
However, it was in 1967 that Britain changed its ideology and introduced the Sexual Acts of 1967 – this law decriminalized private homosexual acts between men in the UK.
Clearly, there is still much to reform regarding anti-LGBTQ issues around the globe.
This is not an issue exclusive to cultures outside of Western Europe.
But the passing of anti-LGBTQ laws in British colonies has only spread and continued the legacy of earlier British ideals of anti-LGBTQ sentiment.
The origins of Britain’s anti-LGBTQ laws
In the British colonies, a combination of common law and statutory codes applied beginning in 1860—this included anti-LGBTQ laws that outlawed same-sex sexual activity.
With a moral and religious purpose in mind, the British Empire created these penal laws to protect local Christians against “corruption”.
Two particularly notable cases are the colonial anti-LGBTQ criminal laws of India and Australia.
In 1788, the British colonized Australia and overhauled the legal system, including implementing anti-LGBTQ laws.
It is uncertain how various indigenous nations treated LGBTQ individuals prior to colonization.
However, in both countries, laws criminalized same-sex sexual encounters.
In addition, the British implemented a long-term prison sentence in lieu of execution in both India and Australia.
Other major European colonial powers, unlike the British, did not leave a similar institutional legacy of criminalizing homosexual activity.
Unlike former colonies of other European nations, former British colonies are much more likely to still have these laws in place.
At least 38 of the 72 nations that still have such legislation in place were formerly ruled by the British in one way or another.
Although these laws appear to be identical on the surface in each of Britain’s colonies, they were written fundamentally differently and included punishments of varying severity.
For example, anti-LGBTQ laws imposed on Ghana and other African nations with a British colonial past have different penalties for the crime.
“Unnatural carnal knowledge” is now classified as a crime under Ghana’s criminal law, with a maximum sentence of three years in prison.
Meanwhile, homosexual acts in Kenya, Nigeria and The Gambia can result in prison terms of more than 10 years.
The death penalty is the maximum penalty in Zambia and Uganda.
So why the difference?
The criminalization of having an LGBTQ identity did not develop in a structured format during the British colonial era.
The choice to introduce a penal code in a colony appears to have been influenced by a number of circumstances.
This may be because the British had previous experience of introducing such legislation in other colonies.
As a result, British authorities from other colonies gave colonial Ghana a unique penal law of the colonial era.
Colonialism in Britain is often discussed as if it were a point in past history.
However, the lasting effects of Britain’s colonial rule will always remain.
Even now, colonialism has a significant negative impact on LGBTQ rights in formerly colonized countries.
In cases like India, British colonialism likely brought anti-LGBTQ laws to the nations it conquered as part of its empire.
Many of the nations that still have anti-LGBTQ laws today got them from the British, who imposed and introduced their laws to these nations.
