WCPT 820 Interview: Melanie Nathan

Richard Chew is joined by Melanie Nathan, South African-born human rights lawyer who directs the African Human Rights Coalition. The Coalition supports LGBTQI+ refugees and asylum seekers displaced by criminalization and violence. 

"The work we do is on the humanitarian level," Nathan explained, "providing safe shelter, food, emergency medical, and also advocacy. So we work directly with LGBT asylum seekers and refugees. And these are two different systems. And what is happening right now in the United States of America is impacting both systems. The refugee system is when you cross a border on the continent. Over 30 countries criminalize LGBT people out of the 54 on the African continent. So, for example, somebody in Uganda who is fleeing the so called 'kill the gays' bill, they might land up in Kenya, then they seek protection with UNHCR [the U.N. Refugee Agency], and then UNHCR, with extreme vetting, will hand their case -- perhaps, not always guaranteed -- to a foreign embassy, such as the USA, and then that person may get resettled to the United States of America. Right in the beginning of his presidency, Donald Trump put an end to that. He stopped people who had spent four or five years in the most horrendous conditions, having some suffered extreme trauma; he put them on hold, and he said, no, you're not coming. And what did he do? 'Let's make America white,' is what he did."

Nathan also described the asylum system in detail.

"What we're seeing with those kind of cases now is a myriad of things, including not giving people due process, picking people up off the streets and in buildings and in their homes, who already have been given court orders allowing them to stay in the United States of America, and suddenly, without being able to reach their lawyers, being shipped off to foreign countries and then sent back to the country where their lives are in absolute danger."

Nathan criticized American evangelicals for funding the criminalization of LGBT people in African countries and called out New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for going to Uganda in July and standing next to Rebecca Kadaga, the former speaker of the Parliament of Uganda, who, Nathan said, "presided over 98 percent of that parliament, passing the 'kill the gays' bill. And he stood next to her, he had a photograph taken with her, and on your show right now, I am challenging Zohran Mamdani to come out and condemn the 'kill the gays' bill in Uganda." 

She also addressed the role of corporations in addressing human rights issues in the United States.

"When I see some of those CEOs normalizing what this regime is doing, standing next to them and patting each other on the back and carrying on, all I see is power and greed and they are all fattening each other up and the people are cast away. And this is what capitalism without guard rails has led to."

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