“All you hear is 'they should kill them or jail them forever': New anti-gay law strikes terror in Uganda

In February of this year, before Uganda passed a draconian anti-homosexuality law through Parliament, Ram Gava Kaggwa already felt that the atmosphere was heating up.

So, he started receiving death threats almost daily for being gay.

And finally, this 26-year-old man, a pastor at Adonai Inclusive Christian Ministries, the only church with gay leaders in Uganda, couldn't take it anymore and closed his church, which also sheltered LGTBIQ people who were homeless or fleeing abuse. their communities.

“We were forced to start praying from our homes for fear of being attacked by people in the church,” says Kaggwa, who received a dozen people who had nowhere to go in her rental house.

On March 21, when the Ugandan Parliament approved this law that further curtails the rights of the LGTBIQ community and sentences them to long prison terms, Kaggwa received a call from her landlord, ordering her to leave the house, because "it was illegal to have homosexual tenants”, an assumption contemplated in the new norm, which has not yet been officially promulgated by the head of state, Yoweri Museveni.

“So, to encourage us to leave, the owner turned off the water and electricity.

When we begged him, he told us to leave that same day and we were left homeless,” Kaggwa explains.

Also in those days, an acquaintance, who was fleeing to join the group for his safety, was killed in Namugongo, one of the suburbs of the capital, Kampala.

Tension has skyrocketed in Uganda for weeks due to this law, which provides for the death penalty for the crime of "aggravated homosexuality", an assumption that includes sexual relations with minors, the elderly or disabled or non-consensual sexual acts in those in which the aggressor is a parent or guardian, among others.

The rule also provides for life imprisonment for anyone who commits a "crime of homosexuality" and up to 20 years in prison for promoting homosexuality, a section that may include activists who protect the rights of sexual minorities, humanitarian workers and also journalists, who could end up behind bars for writing articles like this.

In some 30 African countries, homosexuality is penalized more or less harshly, and in others, such as Nigeria and Somalia,

If the President signs it into law, it will make Ugandan lesbian, gay and bisexual criminals simply for existing

Volker Türk, head of the UN

Since it received the approval of the vast majority of MPs, this controversial law has provoked criticism and suspicion inside and outside Uganda.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, described it as devastating and asked President Museveni not to promulgate it, something unlikely, since the leader, in power since 1986, recently called "deviant" to the gays

As stipulated in the Constitution, the head of state has 30 days to sign the law.

"The passage of this discriminatory law - probably one of the worst of its kind in the world - is a deeply worrying development," Türk said.

“If the president signs it into law, he will turn lesbian, gay and bisexual people in Uganda into criminals simply for the fact that they exist, for being who they are.

This could give carte blanche to the systematic violation of almost all their human rights and serve to incite people to turn against each other,” he added.

Debate session of the law against homosexuality in the Parliament of Uganda, in March 2023ABUBAKER LUBOWA (REUTERS)

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also criticized this new law as it would "undermine the fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse progress in the fight against HIV", he wrote in a message on Twitter, in the which also urged the Ugandan government "to reconsider."

Hidden and with the phones turned off

Sexual minorities already live in fear in this deeply conservative African country, where homosexuality is already illegal and punishable by jail terms under old colonial law.

In 2014, parliamentary approval was given to a bill similar to the one just approved, which also aroused international criticism.

At that time, Museveni signed the regulations, but the Constitutional Court of Uganda ended up annulling it, arguing that there had been an irregularity in the quorum of the deputies when submitting it to a vote.

It is not that we are seen as criminals, but that we are, in itself, a crime

Ram Gava Kaggwa, homosexual and pastor in a church in Uganda

Ten years later, many of the LGBTIQ community, especially those living in rural Uganda where the communities are much more conservative, live in fear of being attacked by the locals.

Some have moved house, gone into hiding and turned off their phones for fear of being tracked down.

For example, Daniel (not his real name), 22, who has decided to leave his job at the beauty salon and has moved elsewhere.

“It's like the whole world has given themselves the right to punish us for being gay,” says Daniel.

“Wherever you go, all you hear is 'they should kill them or imprison them forever.'

And I feel afraid, ”he said.

While waiting for the president to sign the law or not, Kaggwa, who has also settled in a friend's house in a remote place, limits himself to living day to day in the midst of this hostile reality.

“I love my country, but it is increasingly unsafe for me and my family because of an inhumane law that is merciless with people like us,” he says.

“I wonder why they hate us so much if we are all the same and we are all children of God.

But the reality is that right now we can do almost nothing in our own country.

It is not that we are seen as criminals, but that we are, in itself, a crime”.

For Adrian Jjuuko, executive director of the NGO Human Rights Awareness and Promotion - Uganda (HRAPH), this law against homosexuality is contrary to "the Constitution of Uganda, which requires the right to dignity and freedom."

“It is a very complicated and very severe norm, since it can affect all kinds of people: homeowners, organizations that support LGBTIQ people, journalists who talk about the subject...”, he quotes.

Oryem Nyeko, a researcher for the NGO Human Rights Watch in Uganda, believes that the law "sends the message that citizens have the right to do anything to a person, considering that they belong to a sexual minority, even if there is no evidence." .

“It concerns all of us, because anyone who is perceived as gay can be affected,” he added.

Others, like Allan Nusbuga, who works for the organization Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG), prefer not to speak out, invaded by fear.

“I can't talk about it right now,” he told this reporter when contacted to comment on the new law.

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