So the ardent goes ‘everyone is equal before the law’ but to some Ugandans the law does not treat them equally. Instead it discriminates against them.
It gets worse when it comes to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender people (LGBT) the law and its keepers, the state persecute them. To say that LGBT people in Uganda are second class citizens is just but an understatement.
Same-sex relationships have been illegal in Uganda since British colonial rule – as they are in many African countries.
The Ant-Homosexuality Act was then introduced as a private member’s bill by Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati on 14 October 2009.
A special motion to introduce the bill was passed a month after a two-day conference was held in which three Christians from the United States asserted that homosexuality is a direct threat to the cohesion of African families.
The international community, however, condemned the law, accusing the Ugandan government of encouraging violence against LGBT people with the law.
The United States imposed economic sanctions against Uganda in June 2014 in response to the law, the World Bank indefinitely postponed a $90 million aid loan to Uganda and the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway halted aid to Uganda in opposition to the law; the Ugandan government defended the bill and rejected condemnation of it, with the country’s authorities stating President Museveni wanted “to demonstrate Uganda’s independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation”.
However it wasn’t too long before the civil rights activists ran to the constitutional court and the law was declared invalid on grounds of procedure after parliament passed it without quorum.
It was a victory for the LGBT people across the country because the obnoxious law was going to send them to prison for life had it been passed.
It was a victory for the LGBT people across the country because the obnoxious law was going to send them to prison for life had it been passed.
This victory however was just cosmetic because the rights of LBGT have continued to be violated by the state.
The police has repeatedly interfered with their freedom of association. Their events the pride matches and other celebrations like the International Day Against Homophobia (IDAHO) are always violently clamped down with several members of the LGBT community arrested and kept in police cells for days without being produced to court.
Homophobia is so institutionalized in a way that LGBT people are discriminated against accessing basic services like health care.
Pervasive HIV-related social stigma and high levels of homophobic violence caused by conservative social attitudes and stigmatising legislation result in men who have sex with men feeling less inclined to access HIV services.
A study mentioned above found 40% had experienced homophobic abuse and 44.5% had experienced suicidal thoughts. They are most times either insulted or turned away by health workers whenever they go to seek health services.
This is a huge contradiction for a country that wants to end the HIV pandemic by the year 2030 and yet a very significant portion of its citizenry is helplessly being decimated by the scourge thanks to the reckless abandon by the government that never bothers to allocate a budget to cater for the unique health needs of key populations like men who have sex with men, sex workers and people who inject drugs.
The fight against the HIV epidemic will forever remind retrogressive in Uganda for as long as these people are not helped.
Kisingo Abbey is an LGBT Rights activist.