Grassley Cuts Off Uganda After Passage of "Kill the Gays" Law

Museveni told an aide to ask Grassley why he no longer hears from prayer breakfast group

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Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) at a Nov. 6, 2019, White House event with then-Pres. Donald Trump. (Uncredited White House photo.)

One year after Uganda passed its LGBTQ+ death penalty, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), is no longer in touch with the Ugandan government, his office says.

It’s unclear when Grassley severed ties, but his connections to Uganda — and to the U.S. prayer breakfast group that nurtured the bill’s authors — were formed decades ago.

As I reported last week, long-time Ugandan Pres. Yoweri Museveni said at his country’s National Prayer Breakfast on Oct. 8 that he no longer hears from the U.S. prayer breakfast group. He tasked Minister of State for Industry David Bahati with asking Grassley what was going on.

Grassley’s office told me today that “Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) is not in touch with the Ugandan government.”

There was no immediate response to additional questions, such as when Grassley cut ties, but presumably the statement covers Grassley’s staff and anyone in Museveni’s government. That would include Bahati, the lead organizer of Uganda’a prayer breakfast, who originally introduced the so-called “Kill the Gays” bill.

The U.S. group behind the global prayer breakfast network is the Fellowship Foundation, aka The Family. Grassley worked with The Fellowship for years, and was considered a member, according to author Jeff Sharlet, who had access to Fellowship archives.

But Grassley and other Fellowship Republicans denounced the legislation after it sparked an international outcry when Bahati introduced it 15 years ago.

Similar outrage erupted last year when the bill was resurrected and finally enacted last year, and then again when I reported that The Fellowship flew another insider, Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI), to Uganda’s 2023 prayer breakfast.

Walberg used his speech to urge his Ugandan audience to support Museveni as times got tough in the face of international blowback to the anti-LGBTQ+ law.

Even in the face of media blowback, which he predicted, Walberg promised Uganda and Museveni, “We stand with you.”

But he declined to do so both when I first asked for comment about the speech and then, later, when he denied supporting the law — even though he couldn’t explain his remarks in any other context.

And The Fellowship didn’t stand by Museveni, either. The Fellowship’s chair refused the request by Rep. Mark Pocan (D-WI), chair of the Congressional Equality Caucus, to take a position one way or another on Museveni’s new death penalty or Walberg’s support for Museveni.

If Grassley’s not an exception, and Museveni truly has been cut off by The Fellowship’s members of Congress, it could represent not just a betrayal of Walberg’s solidarity pledge, but a possible sign of fading Fellowship diplomatic influence.

(The Fellowship’s leader and chief diplomat, Coe, died in 2017. His sons continue to handle their own Fellowship portfolios. Former Rep. Zach Wamp (R-TN) took on some prayer breakfast functions. And globe-trotting former Gov. David Beasley (R-SC) has carried on some elements of Coe’s legacy. But The Fellowship no longer has a central figure as powerful, or as connected, as Coe was.)

Even if high-profile Fellowship politicians are taking a step back, The Fellowship’s civilian insiders remain active on the global stage. Their longtime point person in Uganda, Tim Kreutter, appears to remain involved with Bahati and the Ugandan parliamentary prayer group. He was visible in the audience at this year’s breakfast.

And The Fellowship’s international allies continue working to steer some nations behind the scenes. I’ve reported on how they helped Guatemala’s evangelical president defeat a UN anti-corruption task force and how they’re now seeking to forge an evangelical future for Ukraine.

In his prayer breakfast remarks this year, Museveni reminisced about attending the original, American iteration. At the time, dictators and questionable figures could attend with relatively little scrutiny.

Museveni also congratulated organizers of this year’s Ugandan breakfast for their work. And made a request of them, regarding Grassley:

“[C]heck what happened to the U.S.? Do we need [to] help them, can we go help them? What? Because I no longer hear anything from that group. The surviving person, Bahati, whom you can ask — I think he’s still alive — Senator Grassley, Senator Grassley. He's an old man. He was in that group. So what happened to that prayer breakfast group in the U.S.? … Please get to the gist of it and find out. Out of curiosity, I want to know what happened.”

Grassley is, indeed, still alive. And 91 years old.

But if Grassley’s distancing is connected to his age, there’s no parallel reasoning to explain Walberg’s disappearance from Museveni’s radar, just a year after praising the Ugandan president in his televised 2023 prayer breakfast speech.

At that same breakfast, Bahati recalled chatting on the phone with Walberg prior to his speech. Walberg, Bahati said, assured him he needn’t worry about Walberg’s allegiance while they were both on Gods’s side.

Museveni, too, spoke about Walberg in his own remarks. Specifically, he counseled his fellow Ugandans to take Walberg’s speech as evidence there actually are some Americans “who think like us.”

But at this year’s breakfast, Museveni didn’t suggest that Bahati ask Walberg about the silence. And Walberg’s office did not respond to my request for comment.

Unlike Grassley, Walberg has especially strong personal ties to Uganda. His daughter and Ugandan son-in-law live there as missionaries and have started businesses there. They also attended last year’s Ugandan breakfast, along with Walberg and his wife.

So if Walberg really has gone back on the lengthy, impassioned commitment he gave Uganda last year, it could represent a significant setback for Museveni’s hopes to shore up domestic political support in the face of sanctions punishing Uganda for the “Kill the Gays” law. Especially with Grassley, too, now jettisoning Museveni publicly.

The seven-term Iowa senator’s connections to Uganda predate even Museveni’s almost 40-year presidency.

Sharlet has written about a Fellowship leader named Bob Hunter, who discussed using Grassley and others — their titles as members of Congress, specifically — to make inroads with African leaders in the 1980s. 

Sharlet wrote that Grassley was once questioned by Germany’s ambassador about why he had come to Uganda. Grassley responded: “I don’t know … Hunter wanted me to come.”

Sharlet wrote in his book, The Family:

“Central to Hunter’s mission was representing the interest of American political figures — Republican senator Chuck Grassley and Reagan’s assistant secretary of state for Africa, Chester A. Crocker, among them — who might influence newly independent Uganda away from Africa’s Left.”

Uganda at the time was run by Pres. Milton Obote. As a relatively new senator and Fellowship insider, Grassley veered from Fellowship practice by pushing Obote on policy. Specifically, Obote’s policy of killing his enemies.

In his followup book, C Street, Sharlet described the contrast with Grassley’s approach to Museveni:

“Grassley, to his credit, had challenged Obote, an American enemy, demanding that he account for the dead of Uganda’s civil war. But he didn’t challenge Museveni, an American ally with nearly as many bodies behind him.”

Years later, Grassley would allude to his Museveni connections when asked why he would meet with then-Judge Merrick Garland about his Supreme Court nomination, which Grassley opposed. Grassley explained, “If I can meet with a dictator in Uganda, I can surely meet with a decent person in America.”

Museveni at this month’s breakfast noted the passing of another Fellowship insider who was active in Uganda alongside Grassley.

“[T]his prayer breakfast group in the U.S. Congress was exactly that [non-sectarian]. They came to look for us here. A man called Doug Coe [The Fellowship’s late leader], he came here. He contacted us with Mama [First Lady Janet Museveni] and then he had people in Germany, Rudolf Decker. Rudolf Decker died recently.”

Sharlet, who had access to Fellowship archives, wrote about Grassley’s work with Decker, a former parliament member who died this summer. In that 1980s meeting with Germany’s ambassador, Decker said he had come because Grassley asked him to.

Decker was a leader of Europe’s Christian right, with ties to the European Christian Political Movement, which opposes LGBTQ+ and reproductive rights. Grassley, too, has actively fought against both in the Senate.

Anti-LGBTQ+ violence and persecution have increased since Museveni signed the new law. In addition to execution for some consensual sex acts, the law forbids some forms of supportive speech, and aiding LGBTQ+ advocates.

Support groups have been evicted and persecuted. And prosecutors have begun filing charges of capital crimes against LGBTQ+ people.

It remains unclear whether economic pressure can squeeze Museveni enough to kill the law any time soon. Even if U.S. Republicans are dropping him.

While the sanctions have hurt some industries, the World Bank nevertheless has forecast continued strength in Uganda’s gross domestic product for the coming years.

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I’m a veteran journalist and TV news producer who’s worked at MSNBC, CNN, ABCNews, The Daily Show, Air America Radio, and TYT. You can support my independent reporting with a donation or a paid subscription.