Social Medicine Consortium 2023

Postponing EqualHealth’s 2023 Social Medicine Consortium Conference

Dear friend,

After significant dialogue and deliberation, EqualHealth has made the difficult decision to postpone our 2023 Social Medicine Consortium conference, “Advancing Health Equity Through Social Medicine Practice and Education,” originally planned for June 26-29 in Mbarara, Uganda. We plan to gather in-person in 2024 at a location yet to be determined.

In late March, the Ugandan parliament passed an extremist anti-gay bill that imposes severe punishments on LGBTQIA+ people and their allies. This legislation, combined with our understanding of the current social and political context in Uganda, makes it impossible for us to gather safely as a global collective centered on health equity. While political deliberations about the future of the bill continue in Uganda, our estimation is that the risk is too high and significant uncertainties around freedom of speech persist.

Homophobia is a toxic force, which causes devastating physical and psychological harm. It is antithetical to EqualHealth’s commitment to health equity, social justice, and dismantling racial capitalism. It is also not a problem that originates in Uganda. Indeed, it is a force of supremacy and exclusion that traverses the globe and has deep roots in the Global North, including white Christian nationalist movements.

We acknowledge and regret the substantial disappointment this postponement creates for our Ugandan team members, partners, service providers, and tour agents, who have been organizing diligently to host this gathering. We hold their grief alongside our commitment to repairing the harm done to our LGBTQIA+ comrades, with the hope that we make collectively embark on a shared healing process.

Thus, our decision to postpone this year's conference is not intended to sever relations with our Ugandan team and partners. Rather, we as EqualHealth—with staff, leadership, and members living across the globe—are committed to further deepening our connections together in order to attune our analysis for equity and better create containers for healing, safety, and well-being in our future gatherings.

As we take time for this internal reflection, we also recognize that already the fallout of this bill has caused significant harm to our global EqualHealth community—especially our LGBTQIA+ colleagues and friends. This is deeply painful and not acceptable. Over the next six months, we commit to collectively accounting for this harm by making efforts toward repair and healing. In particular, we will hold facilitated healing circles, build relationships with organizations doing LGBTQIA+ justice work in the Global South, undergo safety and care training, and build structural support for one-on-one conversations and constructive dialogue.

Our team will reach out individually to conference registrants to refund all registration fees. We will also explore support options for those who have invested financial resources in anticipation of attending the conference.

We welcome your feedback as we enter this next phase of our efforts to deepen global solidarity and build a just, loving world. 

In gratitude, 

EqualHealth’s Leadership Committee