Kampala, Uganda
NCS
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In between main Sunday providers at All Saints’ Cathedral in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, Rev. Canon John Awodi declares vehemently that “homosexuality is a sin that must be repented of,” including that it’s in opposition to the “order of God.”
“Homosexuality is not natural, it is unnatural. That is the stand of the church here. It is unbiblical, it is unnatural,” the Anglican cleric instructed NCS.
These themes have change into a standard thread in his sermons and interviews, particularly since Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act was signed into regulation final month.
The act outlaws homosexual marriage in Uganda, punishes same-sex acts with life imprisonment, and requires the demise penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” – which incorporates intercourse with a minor or in any other case weak particular person, having intercourse whereas HIV constructive and incest.
After initially wavering and sending the invoice – which is extensively standard with lawmakers, Christian and Muslim leaders in Uganda, in addition to commentators on social media – back to parliament for review, President Yoweri Museveni ultimately signed it into regulation in May, resulting in international criticism, existential dread inside the LGBTQ+ group, and authorized challenges.
“It dehumanizes us as human beings, it doesn’t treat us as citizens. We are literally criminals and we are illegal in our own space that we call home. Nowhere is safe for any queer person living in Uganda,” Joan Amek, co-founder of Rella Women’s Foundation, instructed NCS.
Even although she created a protected house and shelter for lesbian, bisexual, and queer ladies via her group, she says, she herself faces eviction from her rented condo by the finish of July. She believes it’s as a result of of her sexuality and prominence in queer activism, regardless that her landlord didn’t explicitly say so however her suspicions rose after a neighbor tipped her off.
“I have had myself being chased away from where I’m staying,” she stated.
Returning to her dad and mom’ home was not an possibility both. “My mum stands in solidarity with me but from a distance. When we had the conversation that I had been evicted, she didn’t say ‘you can come home’ she just said ‘oh, sorry, I’ll pray for you.’ How is prayer going to help?” Amek requested.
In current weeks, disturbing movies have surfaced exhibiting mounting hostility in the direction of lesbian, homosexual, bisexual, transgender, and intersex people in Uganda since the reintroduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
In one video, verified by a consortium of civil society teams referred to as the Strategic Response Team (SRT), a transgender girl is marched bare on the streets whereas a jeering crowd follows, and a lesbian couple endures ridicule from neighbors, amongst different types of public shaming.
At least 300 human rights violations in opposition to suspected homosexuals have been reported in Uganda arising from the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023, the SRT instructed NCS. As it investigates them, the SRT says it submitted a listing of 50 verified instances to a choose whereas looking for an injunction in opposition to the regulation.
They embody instances of evictions, so-called “corrective” rape, outing, termination from employment, blackmail, threats of violence or bodily assaults and incidents of mob justice, in keeping with SRT.
However, opposition lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa, who launched the 2023 invoice, dismissed the newest experiences of human rights violations as “distortions” and fabrications.
He instructed NCS the allegations have been “completely false,” and backed the regulation.
“Who has been fired from their jobs? Who has been evicted from their houses? This is a very innocent law. No one has been targeted,” he stated.
Nash Wash Raphael, a 30-year-old transgender man, says he was attacked on the evening Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act. He was left with a damaged ankle and depends on crutches to stroll whereas it heals.
This was not the first time Raphael had confronted violence; he says it was the ninth assault since his transition. Raphael describes his life as “hell,” and says he tried suicide when photos of him and his companion have been leaked and went viral. While they weren’t intimate photographs, they nonetheless outed him.
“I feel like I should take my own life as there is nothing else I’m left to protect. This is my second year on hormones, and I was supposed to get my top surgery next year, but all this has been shattered, and I can’t even afford it,” Raphael stated. Top surgical procedure refers to the process to take away breast or chest tissue.
Raphael says he now not walks throughout the day, afraid that he would possibly get attacked once more.
After getting fired from his job for not carrying conventional ladies’s garments, he tried informal jobs in Dubai and Saudi Arabia and hawking baked items in Kampala however says he couldn’t maintain his identification hidden for lengthy.
He says his Muslim household disowned him and he stays in contact solely along with his youngest sister out of six siblings. His father instructed NCS that Raphael is his daughter who has refused to come back dwelling.
“My life is actually useless to them. I literally tell myself that I don’t have a family in this world. The same God that created them has a reason why he made me the way I am,” Raphael says, his voice breaking.
The new regulation states that “a person who promotes homosexuality commits an offense and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for a period not exceeding twenty years.”
It additionally requires Ugandans to report suspected homosexuals or violations of the regulation to the authorities.
On Museveni’s advice, the regulation prescribes rehabilitation for convicted homosexuals to vary their sexual orientation, regardless that scientists say so-called conversion therapy is harmful and ineffective.
Ugandan lawmakers, who overwhelmingly supported the invoice, railed in opposition to the supposed “recruitment” of younger individuals into homosexuality, pedophilia and grooming.
Basalirwa, the lawmaker, instructed NCS he had met with individuals who had been “recruited” however had, in his phrases, “counseled out of it.”
“I want to disagree with the people who say homosexuality is a Western concept. No, it is not. We’ve lived with homosexuality here in this country, in Africa. What is foreign is recruitment and promotion. That’s un-African,” he stated.
Human rights advocates say that the offense of “promotion” of homosexuality may very well be weaponized in opposition to activists, journalists, or any odd citizen.
“Someone can accuse anyone of being queer and they’ll get arrested. And next thing you know, you could be spending up to life in prison,” Amek instructed NCS.
Amek has grown accustomed to the risks of her work, after she says her group’s places of work have been raided by police thrice, forcing them to maneuver to a brand new shelter for weak queer ladies.
It is the price of persevering with to function in a conservative Ugandan society the place homophobic messaging emanates all over the place from church buildings and mosques to the highest political places of work, Amek stated.
The Church of Uganda brazenly defied the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and supported the Anti-Homosexuality Act, accusing the international head of the Anglican Church of misinterpreting the Bible.
Welby wrote to the leader of Ugandan Anglicans expressing his “grief and dismay” for at that help, however it fell on deaf ears. The Church of Uganda says it’s going to separate from the Church of England over their variations on the difficulty of homosexuality.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 is a revival of a earlier model nicknamed the “Kill the Gays” Bill that Uganda’s parliament handed in 2014 however which was blocked in courtroom on a technicality. This present regulation can also be being challenged in courtroom.
Amek understands that she dangers jail time by talking up, however she persists, saying it’s value it. “I don’t want to be a martyr and die. But I want to stand strong for protection of the LGBTIQ generation and community now, but also for the future,” she stated.
“Silence equals death. And regardless of whether I stay silent or not, they’ll still kill us, they’ll still criminalize us.”