Recent court and political victories have given the LGBT rights movement unexpected momentum in the United States, but the picture is not so bright in other places in the world – namely sub-Saharan Africa, where countries like Nigeria, the Gambia and Uganda have passed laws cracking down on their gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender populations.

A broadening movement to criminalize homosexual behavior, fueled by elements intrinsic to the region as well as by the encouragement of some anti-LGBT activists from the U.S., has created a complicated landscape for the international community seeking to protect the rights of LGBT people in Africa.

In places like Ghana, Uganda, Kenya and Nigeria, more than four-fifths of the population believes homosexuality is morally unacceptable. With polling like that, and generally bleak economic news, it’s no wonder politicians such as Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan and Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni have jumped on anti-gay legislation to boost their election prospects.

Chad is the latest country to consider increasing penalties on LGBT people, with reports of a bill introduced last month that would criminalize homosexuality. In January, Nigeria’s Jonathan signed into law a measure that punishes same-sex unions with 14-year prison sentences and 10-year terms for those guilty of “promoting” homosexuality; within days, dozens of people across the country were arrested, some charged in court with belonging to a gay organization. And the crackdown has continued in months since; in March four Nigerian men were whipped publicly after having been convicted of having gay sex. In February Uganda’s Museveni, in the face of formidable political opposition in his upcoming election, signed a law that levies heavy punishments for same-sex activity, including a lifetime in prison for “aggravated homosexuality," meaning homosexual relations with a minor, a disabled person or someone infected with HIV. (The original 2009 bill punished “aggravated homosexuality” with death, a provision later dropped.) In the Gambia, lawmakers passed a similar measure in August. The laws do more than violate people's rights — they also hamper the efforts of HIV/AIDS activists. For instance, in April 2014, a U.S. funded HIV research program was raided by Ugandan officials under suspicions that it was "training youths in homosexuality."

“It’s almost a bidding war to the bottom of who can throw the toughest sanctions,” says J. Peter Pham, director of the African Center at the Atlantic Council. “The vast majority of the population will support it and your opponent running against you will accuse you of being soft if your legislation doesn’t offer the most draconian penalties.”

There’s another political advantage to supporting such laws. Since pro-gay support is seen as a Western influence, promoting anti-gay laws allows politicians to not only tout their religiosity, but also be seen as standing up to those attempting to infringe upon their sovereignty. And on a continent so heavily shaped by colonization, the case against imperialism can be an easy, and winning, argument to make. Ironically, many of the laws prohibiting homosexuality that some countries are now considering expanding upon are, in fact, relics of colonial rule.

The very religious and generally conservative nature of African societies that has helped shape the anti-gay popular sentiment in many countries also likely attracted the eye of some conservative U.S. organizations, some U.S.-based human rights groups say.

“There is ripe and fertile territory in certain regions for this sort of message and these sorts of attacks to take root,” says Cole Parke, a LGBT rights researcher at Political Research Associates, a liberal, social justice think tank.

A group of American evangelical activists known for their anti-gay views gave a series of talks in Kampala, Uganda, as self proclaimed “experts in homosexuality” in March 2009, The New York Times reported in 2010. They met with lawmakers and language from their speeches is reportedly echoed within anti-gay legislation since then.

In fact a number of other American groups and individuals have recently been tied to the surge of anti-LGBT sentiments in Africa, though many object to the alleged connections.

“The Ugandan law ignited a wave of anti-LGBT activism that unfortunately caught fire in the region,” says Ty Cobb, director of global engagement for the Human Rights Campaign, referring to the law approved by Uganda’s parliament in December 2013 and signed by the president in February.

While some U.S.-based groups accused of pushing the laws deny their involvement, their critics speculate failures domestically have pushed them to spread their message abroad.

“We are dealing with a desperate movement and desperation makes people act out in very strange ways,” says Jeremy Hooper, a consultant who has worked for GLAAD researching American groups blamed for stoking homophobia abroad.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a law that levies heavy punishments for same-sex sexual activity.

Illustration by Ethan Rosenberg for USN&WR/Photo by Carl Court for Getty Images

The World Congress of Families, founded in 1997, has hosted large international “pro-family” conferences – which, among other things, stressed the dangers of same-sex unions to society. The group has also hosted smaller events, including one in Nigeria in 2009. This year, the World Congress presented a lifetime achievement award to its Nigerian coordinator, Theresa Okafor, who has defended the Nigerian and Ugandan governments for wanting to “ban all forms of gravitation toward homosexual unions.”

Sharon Slater, president of Arizona-based Family Watch International, which often works with the World Congress, says her visits to Mozambique and Uganda were focused on children affected by AIDS and “at no time did we ever discuss LGBT issues.”

Her speeches at Nigerian events in 2009, 2011 and 2012, Slater says, were focused on U.N. policies and parenting seminars.

“We were also not involved in any way, shape or form in the creation or promotion of Nigeria’s new law on homosexuality,” she tells U.S. News in an email. “We do, however, certainly support laws that protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”

Nevertheless, copies of U.N.-oriented speeches she has made elsewhere show her lobbying against U.N. measures to encourage member states to legalize same-sex marriage and repeal laws against same-sex activities, prompting the Human Rights campaign to label Slater as an “exporter of hate” in a recent report.

While the World Congress of Families has operated under the radar of LGBT rights groups for years, it has grown in prominence since National Organization for Marriage President Brian Brown and others have joined its efforts.

Hooper says while some activists considered fringe in the U.S. are associated with the World Congress of Families, the group also now includes prominent and respected political forces such as the Family Research Council, “which is a very connected group that you will see on all the cable shows and talking to major politicians,” Hooper points out.

The World Congress of Families has also been making the rounds on Capitol Hill. In 2013, House Speaker John Boehner reportedly saw to it the group had a space to meet in the Capitol building, after protests by LGBT activists prompted the meeting’s original sponsor, Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., to nix the original plans.

Illustration by Ethan Rosenberg for USN&WR/Photo by Rebecca Vassie for AP

Both Brown, who has not been to Africa but says that doesn’t mean he wouldn’t ever go, and World Congress of Families Managing Director Larry Jacobs scoffed at the idea that their efforts abroad were responsible for the harsh anti-gay laws being passed in places like Uganda and Nigeria.

“Adults can engage in whatever sexual behavior in the privacy of their own homes and bedrooms,” Jacobs says, arguing the group has never condoned violence against LGBT people. “But we don’t believe the government should be promoting things that are not healthy for children or society at large.”

Campaigning against gay marriage has been a core part of conservative groups’ work in the U.S., but rhetoric opposing it wasn’t present in Africa before the groups arrived there, says Parke of Political Research Associates.They are still too focused on obtaining basic human rights for LGBT people.

The American Center for Law and Justice, a group started by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s Pat Robertson, whose religious television programs are commonly viewed in African homes, opened centers in Kenya and Zimbabwe in recent years. Robertson’s group has focused on lobbying African parliaments “to take the Christian’s views into consideration as they draft legislation and policies,” according to a 2012 report released by Political Research Associates. The law center did not respond to repeated requests for comment regarding its operations in Africa.

With Uganda and Chad as bookends to the current wave of gay criminalization policies, pro-gay rights groups have begun a counteroffensive. But just how to go about combating these laws is tricky for international groups interested in protecting the rights of LGBT Africans and the U.S. government alike.

In a rambling editorial published earlier this month, Uganda’s Museveni argued that foreign aid cuts would not sway his support of the anti-gay measure, though he also cautioned against reinstating some parts of the law due to the threat of a trade boycott.

But a breakdown in U.S-Uganda relations could affect more than just those two countries: Uganda contributes the most boots on the ground for peacekeeping operations in Somalia, and the United States spends hundreds of millions of dollars on equipping the forces. If the United States were to suspend aid in protest of anti-LGBT legislation and Uganda troops were to leave Somalia, that country would “collapse,” says the Atlantic Council’s Pham.

“The one sanction that would get Uganda’s attention very, very quickly would be something to do with security assistance,” Pham says. “But because we need them so desperately in Somalia that’s not going to happen.”

Likewise, the U.S. can’t risk burning bridges with Nigeria, which is Africa’s biggest economy, according to Pham. Growing terrorism threats in the northeastern portion of the country also make it politically challenging for the U.S. to publicly withdraw support, given that the Nigerian government is still trying to locate the approximately 270 schoolgirls abducted six months ago by Boko Haram.

For human rights groups, it’s matter of treading carefully in how they support the efforts by local advocates on the ground.

“Grass roots activists have to be at the forefront at social change,” says Sarah Gunther, program director at the Astraea Foundation, which provides grants for global LGBT efforts. “It’s really important that Western organizations are not seen as the face of the movement or the driving force of the movement.”

That movement has also been creative in how it frames their arguments, Gunther says, stressing that they’re fighting for human rights, rather than LGBT rights. Some groups even avoid having any LGBT-related terminology in their titles – in part because such a label could be considered promoting a homosexual propaganda.

Still, the narrative in Africa is not all bad, LGBT supporters say.

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In Kenya, according to Gunther, the number of LGBT groups has grown from about five in 2005 to between 20 and 25 in 2014. Important strides have been made there, advocates say, particularly on the matter of the rights of transgender people. Courts there have ruled in favor of the ability of transgender advocacy groups to register as official Non-Government Organizations and the right of a Kenyan transwoman to be issued education documents using her female name.

South Africa has long been a leader on the continent, with the country’s constitution prohibiting of discrimination based on sexual orientation.

Patricia Lambert, a South African lawyer, says the country’s unique political climate coming out of apartheid allowed it to be a leader on gay rights. She says the subsequent move for democracy included human rights for all, culminating in 2005 when the South African constitutional court ruled that gay marriage was legal under the human rights clause. Gay couples started marrying in South Africa in 2006, two years after Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize such marriages.

In the meantime, activists in America – either bolstered or disheartened by certain gains for LGBT rights in the U.S. – will be closely watching developments on the other side of the world.