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THE ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY BILL
In 2010 the Ugandan Parliament approved a bill that will punish "aggravated homosexuality" with life imprisonment or death. The measure came after years of debate over the measure that was introduced to "protect" Ugandan children from what they think is recruitment by Western LGBT individuals. Homosexuality is already illegal in the deeply Christian country; I spoke to the author of the Kill the gays David Bahati, gay activists to assess the infringement of people’s rights.
The bill, widely known as the Ugandan "kill the gays" bill, originally included a provision that would make repeated instances of homosexual acts punishable by death. Even though the bill was passed, signed into law by the Uganda President Yoweri Museveni and later scrapped by the constitutional court, Ugandan LGBTQ’s still find a hard time identifying as gay people due to fear of being rejected by the community.
Legislators are planning to re introduce the bill before parliament even when it was squashed by the constitutional court. This, obviously, is terrible news for gay people in Uganda and human rights in general. I spoke to Clare Byarugaba, co-coordinator of the Civil Society Coalition for Human Rights and Constitutional Law (CSHRCL), and is mentally exhausted with checking parliament's order papers every day, and pessimistic. "Hope for gay rights in Uganda is like expecting corruption in Uganda to end. It will never end. The population is behind the bill and MPs go with the majority."
Speaking with gay people in Uganda who have hide if they were gay, They're terrified about the consequences of the bill passing. They have already been chased out of the one-room house they all shared in the Bwaise slum because the police believe that they're "recruiting" young people into homosexuality. The issue of "recruitment" is one of the Ugandan government's principal concerns, with David Bahati the author of the bill telling me that he believes homosexuality is an addiction and that people, particularly children, are lured into it.
It took David two weeks to get back to me, but the day before I left Uganda, he granted me an interview. Uganda is a country where the climate for LGBTI people was already hostile and discriminatory, LGBTI people have faced a notable increase in arbitrary arrests, police abuse and extortion, loss of employment, evictions and homelessness, and scores have fled the country. At least one transgender person has been killed since the bill was signed, in an apparent hate crime.
Health providers have cut back on essential services for LGBTI people, who also fear harassment or arrest if they seek health care. The passing of this discriminatory law has not only opened the floodgates for a range of human rights violations against LGBTI people in Uganda, but has also ensured that victims of these violations are denied access to effective remedies. Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a Kampala-based organization, stated in a recent report that “the full force of the State, particularly the legislative and executive branches of government, is being used to hunt down, expose, demean and suppress Uganda’s LGBTI people.”
“The Anti-Homosexuality Act has created homelessness and joblessness, restricting life-saving HIV work, and bloating the pockets of corrupt police officers who extort money from victims of arrest.
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International conducted research in Kampala and other Ugandan towns in April 2014, interviewing 38 individuals directly affected by the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, four lawyers and paralegals, and four organizations that provide health services to LGBTI people.
The law has empowered [homophobic people]. My neighbor was shouting “These people are animals. Even Museveni knows that these people are inhuman. How can he be in the house? How can you even give him one whole month? We have this law, the police should throw him out.
On March 13, police arrested Maria W., a transgender asylum seeker, after neighbors reported her to police as a “homosexual.” Police searched Maria’s home without a warrant and beat her, demanding that she enter the password on her laptop to allow them to search it:
They kept beating me. They were beating me with pieces of wood, fists, and kicks...They took me to the police post and interrogated me. They said I left my country to come destroy Ugandan culture.
Police asked for large bribes in exchange for Maria’s release. According to Maria, “They said, ‘He’s part of a gay organization; they have lots of money and sleep with whites.’” Maria was released after a friend bribed the police with 500,000 Ugandan shillings (about $200).
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