Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community is facing an unprecedented surge in violent attacks this year, according to rights groups. Advocacy group Sexual Minorities Uganda (Smug) reported that over 110 people reported incidents of abuse, including arrests, sexual violence, evictions, and public undressing, in February alone. The group also revealed that transgender people were disproportionately affected. The environment for sexual minorities in Uganda is becoming increasingly hostile, with the reintroduction of a controversial anti-homosexuality bill by Ugandan MPs. Religious groups in the country have been openly critical of homosexuality.
This is not the first time Uganda has attempted to pass an anti-gay law. In 2013, a similar law was struck down, but not before a “notable increase” in police abuse and extortion, evictions, and harassment. A leaked report by the Ministry of Internal Affairs showed that, as of January, 26 organizations were or had been under government investigation over involvement in LGBTQ+ advocacy. Frank Mugisha, director of Smug, called the move a “witch-hunt” and said that it is part of a “deliberate, calculated, very systematic move” to erase the LGBTQ+ community by groups within government, parliament, and conservative evangelicals.
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According to reports, members of Uganda’s LGBT community have had to flee their homes to avoid arrest by police tipped off by the public. Attacks have taken place at private events, parties, and even football games. Transgender people have been the most affected by the violence, and have been subjected to anal examinations and charged with committing “unnatural offenses”.
Transitioning in Uganda is difficult, with few medical providers willing to offer hormone therapy, and people who want to undertake sex reassignment surgery need to travel out of the country. While trans people can legally change their names and IDs, the procedure for doing so is not specified and leaves a lot to the discretion of the National Identification and Registration Authority. Laws that indirectly criminalize trans people, such as impersonation and public indecency, or those that criminalize same-sex relations, add intense scrutiny.
Activists fear that these crackdowns are a diversionary tactic to shift public attention from issues including corruption scandals and spiraling public debt. As violence against Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community continues to escalate, many people are living in fear and in hiding. This whole situation is setting the community back and marginalizing people further.
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