‘New law would be an automatic death sentence for us’

An abhorrent new bill has already seen people in one country flee their jobs and homes in fear of their lives.

Uganda’s new anti LGBTQI law leaves people fearing for their lives. Picture: Trevor Snapp/AFP

Every day, John would wake up in the morning to go to his factory job where he was overworked and underpaid. But that wasn’t the worst part: It was being a gay man working in a predominantly male workplace in a country where it’s illegal to be gay.

“It was torture,” John, 23, says. “They bullied me a lot over there and there was absolutely nothing I could do about it.

“I can’t even fight back because the people there hate me and they don’t even try to hide it. Challenging them is eventually giving them a reason to lynch you for being gay.”

Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda. Then on March 21, a bill was passed to make it punishable by lifetime imprisonment and in some cases the death penalty. It’s one of the toughest anti-gay pieces of legislation in Africa.

The bill would mean friends, family and members of the community would have a duty to report individuals in same-sex relationships to the authorities.

“I came from a violently homophobic family. Being the first child of five kids, I’m supposed to be a role model to my younger siblings but I was told I’m the opposite – a huge disappointment and a bad influence,” John says.

“My father hated who I was so much and wouldn’t hesitate to pounce on me every chance he got and my mum enabled it.

“He has gotten me arrested and made me sleep in police cells multiple times.

“I was constrained to a conversion therapy two years ago that traumatised me till this day. I knew I had to run away at that point because it made me see the extent my parents would go to fix me.”

LGBTQI+ people in Uganda have been left in fear of the lives after a new bill was passed to make homosexuality punishable by lifetime imprisonment and even death. Picture: AFP

John moved to a one-bedroom apartment with a friend Zack. Zack is one of the gay men who used to live at an LGBTQI+ shelter that was raided by police in 2020, when they were whipped and paraded through the street in chains.

The two friends had been living together for over a year after Zack helped him find his first job in the city.

“Our neighbours have always been hostile towards us since I moved into that apartment to live with my friend,” John says.

“They treat us with total contempt and look at us with disdain, they would interrogate anyone who comes to see us and wouldn’t even let the children in the compound. They speak to us like we are some registered offenders.”

Two days after the new bill was passed, John and Zack were attacked by their neighbours. A day later his life was threatened at work and he had to quit.

The new bill threatens landlords and people who support LGBTQI+ people, prompting the attacks. One of the extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalises people simply identifying as who they are, or knowing anyone who is LGBTQI+.

Ugandan Queer activist Papa De raises a fist outside the Uganda High Commission during a picket against the country’s anti-homosexuality bill in Pretoria, South Africa on April 4, 2023. Picture: Phill Magakoe/AFP

“We had to flee that night, abandoning most of our belongings and running for our dear lives,” says John.

“LGBTQI+ people have always been hounded and killed in Uganda, so this new bill terrifies me a lot.

“The government just gave permission to extreme and violent homophobes to persecute us. A lot of Ugandan gay men have gone into hiding as people have been going to their houses to harass, beat and extort money from them.”

John and some LGBTQI+ folks have been squatting in abandoned houses and buses for over a week now because they have nowhere else safe to go.

“Most of the time during the day, they go into the bushes to avoid been seen by people who would want to call the authorities or take the law into their own hands and lynch them.

Ugandans taking part in an anti-gay demonstrations at Jinja, Kampala in 2010 when a Ugandan pastor was seeking to bolster Uganda's anti-gay laws. Picture: Trevor Snapp/AFP

Some LGBTQI+ people have even gone back to their families to beg for forgiveness and renounce their sexuality, as they see it as the only redemption before the bill is signed and a manhunt is launched for LGBTQI+ people in Uganda.

Another devastating impact is the closing down of some non-governmental organisations that have been accused of promoting homosexuality in the country.

These organisations provided free healthcare and medications for LGBTQI+ people living with HIV in Uganda for years, now a lot of these people in Uganda will be unable to procure their medications.

Although the new bill that was passed has not been signed yet, it really fanned the flames of violent homophobia in Uganda.

“We really don’t know what to do if that bill gets signed. It’s an automatic death sentence for us,” says John.

Daniel Anthony is a Nigerian writer living in Lagos, Nigeria.