LGBTQ+ Ugandans fight for survival, civil rights under country’s anti-gay law

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• John Yang:

  And Uganda, the country's constitutional court is expected to rule on a law that threatens fines life imprisonment, even death just for being gay. Ugandan civil rights groups challenge the anti-homosexuality act in December, and the United States has joined a growing international outcry by sanctioning Uganda by restricting visas and withholding trade.

  Ali Rogin spoke with two Ugandan LGBTQ plus activists, including one who just survived an attempt on his life. And we should warn you that some of the images in this report may be disturbing for some viewers.

  Steven Kabuye, Colored Voice Truth to LGBTQ: The man that tried to cut my neck shouted what's in the local language of Uganda, ffa musiyazzi, which is translated to die you homosexual.

• Ali Rogin (voice-over):

  Steven Kabuye is the executive director of the advocacy group Colored Voice Truth to LGBTQ, he's faced death threats since March because of his sexuality. Then last month, he filmed himself on the ground clinging to life after being stabbed repeatedly by unknown assailants outside his home. He's now receiving care outside Uganda. But Kabuye says the police seemed more focused on his being gay than on the attack.

• Steven Kabuye:

  People wanted end my life and the police was really looking into my sexuality and everything. And two days later when they came to get a settlement from me, they kept on asking me how I became gay.

• Ali Rogin (voice-over):

  Activist say that this is the new normal for the LGBTQ plus community since the Anti-Homosexuality Act became law last May. It calls for life imprisonment for having gay sex, and imposes up to 20 years in prison for anyone promoting homosexuality. And it calls for the death penalty for having same sex relations with minors, disabled persons or people with HIV.

  A majority of Ugandan support the controversial law, and most of its main enforcers have been everyday citizens. A coalition of rights groups documented 281 instances of vigilante abuses against LGBTQ plus people last year, versus 25 times when the government was behind the abuse. Some suffer in silence and can't rely on friends or family.

• Man:

  As a person I felt suicidal because of my family was like, if they give you, they told me themselves, even if they give you the death sentence for us we shall see it as justice because awe believe in god.

• Ali Rogin (voice-over):

  The laws fate is ultimately up to Uganda's Constitutional Court, but the United States and others have stepped up pressure to repeal the law and protect the country's LGBTQ plus community.

  Last August, the World Bank halted new loans to Uganda. And in December, the U.S. imposed visa restrictions on hundreds of Ugandan officials and their families. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni dismissed the actions.

• Yoweri Museveni, Ugandan President:

  They tried to put pressure on us. Pressure if you don't do this, we shall not — we shall not allow you to go to America. I don't want to go to America.

• Ali Rogin (voice-over):

  This isn't the first time Uganda has grappled with a law like this. In 2014, a similar but less restrictive laundry protests, the court overturned it on procedural grounds following Western sanctions and suspension of aid.

• Ali Rogin:

  For more we turn to Clare Byarugaba, an LGBTQ plus activist. She's the equality and non-discrimination coordinator for Chapter Four Uganda, a civil rights group.

  Clare, thank you so much for joining us. How has this law affected you personally, if you wouldn't mind sharing? And also how has it affected your community?

• Clare Byarugaba, Chapter Four Uganda:

  Thank you so much, Ali, for having me. As an LGBT community, we are really facing one of the worst experiences that anyone can go through. We see that these laws are a form of state sponsored homophobia and transphobia. The very purpose of this law is to basically erase the LGBT community from the face of the earth. But we have fighting back.

• Ali Rogin:

  We understand that the Constitutional Court is set to rule any day on the constitutionality of this law. What are your hopes for the outcome of that ruling? And how would it affect the implementation of the law?

• Clare Byarugaba:

  We're asking the courts to look at the substantive arguments that we are putting in our petitions to declare that this law is unconstitutional on substantive grounds to protect and enshrine the rights of LGBT individuals. Because this means that once the courts if they're independent enough, declare this law unconstitutional, it would mean that the risk of having another anti-gay law very low.

  And of course the world is watching and especially African countries that are thinking of proposing or passing similar laws. They rushing to see what happens in Uganda.

• Ali Rogin:

  Since this laws implementation, how has it affected the ability for LGBTQ plus communities to access health care, particularly in the context of Uganda spite to eradicate aids?

• Clare Byarugaba:

  So this law has been, has rolled back the current trend that Uganda was on to reach the zero infections by 2030. We see that the LGBT community, particularly men who have sex with men, gay men, and transgender individuals, failing to go to hospitals for care, because the law requires doctors to report suspected LGBT individuals or those that are suspected to be involved in same sex, sexual activity, consensual or otherwise. So this has rolled back really the progress that Uganda had made in the past.

• Ali Rogin:

  How popular is this law with Ugandan citizens overall?

• Clare Byarugaba:

  We see a resurgence of particularly us, evangelical extremists coming to Uganda, coming to other African countries, saying this is something that you have to focus on. So we're seeing it's kind of a form of recolonization, where U.S. evangelical extremists have lost ground in their own countries, and they see Africa as ground zero.

  We often say that, you know, homophobia is not a homegrown fight. You know, Africans don't hate each other. Someone has radicalized them, someone has to tell them lies false allegations that LGBT individuals are recruiting their children, or that we have this this plan to eradicate that traditional family in Uganda.

  So this dangerous rhetoric has, unfortunately, is unfortunately being believed by the ordinary citizen of Uganda. And in turn, they are — they have become vigilantes.

• Ali Rogin:

  What do you make of the response that the international community has had to this law, particularly from countries where protections for LGBTQ plus communities do exist?

• Clare Byarugaba:

  We have called for international solidarity. We've called for international pressure and it's working, because without international pressure, I would probably be in jail at this moment.

• Ali Rogin:

  Has the United States in particular done enough?

• Clare Byarugaba:

  The United States has done quite a lot. And I will applaud the U.S. government for responding to our call for sanctions, for financial and visa restrictions. But the U.S. government can do so much more. The U.S. government is seen as a leader in protection of international human rights.

  So it's important that the government continues to do more in terms of applying pressure and increasing the sanctions base against proven individuals that are blatantly promoting the violations of LGBT individuals and opposition leaders.

  We know that any country, any country's democracy is measured in how it treats minorities, and in this case they they've gotten government is failing us. It's failing to protect us. It is putting us at risk every day. And this is unacceptable in any democratic country.

• Ali Rogin:

  Clare Byarugaba, an activist with the civil rights organization, Chapter Four Uganda, thank you so much for your time.

• Clare Byarugaba:

  Thank you, Ali.

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