Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni approved one of the world’s most anti-LGBTQ laws, which includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” despite criticism from the West and potential fines from aid donors. Same-sex partnerships were illegal in Uganda before, as they were in more than thirty other African countries; the new law targets LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer) persons.More than half of the 54 nations that make up Africa prohibit consenting same-sex partnerships, according to the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Intersex Association (ILGA). Bellinda Kezabu: The Peril of Growing Up Lesbian.
Human Rights Watch noted that while more than thirty African countries—including Uganda—have already made same-sex unions illegal, the recently passed law seems to be the first to make just identifying as LGBTQ a crime.
In February, the Kenyan Supreme Court upheld previous court decisions, concluding that the government could not lawfully refuse registration to the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission (NGLHRC).
Same-sex activity in Africa is punishable by
Growing up in Uganda as a lesbian
Since she is a lesbian, which is a sin in Uganda, she fled from being harassed, abused, and imprisoned. As so, she suffered greatly and was subjected to many types of humiliation during her early years. The fact that her Christian family abandoned her and isolated her for the person she had become only made things worse. Her own family wasn’t even fond of her for being herself.
Bellinda Kezabu tried her hardest not to show them how she felt, but it was useless since they would not stop calling her names like the devil, the wicked being, and useless. In an effort to drive away the spirits, they also brought her to church for specific prayers intended to rid her of “the evil spirits,” carried out other “cultural cleansing rituals,” and employed a variety of local plants.
The commencement of her high school discharge in 2011 marked the start of her immense pain and shame. In 2010, while enrolled in Buddo Secondary School, her high school, she started to realise that she was a lesbian. She shared a dorm with Sandra Edith, who was two classes below her in age, attractive, funny, mature for her age, and who also sprayed her body and did laundry. Because she was a lesbian, she was expelled from the school.
Family support
Bellinda Kezabu’s family took some time to adjust to her being expelled from school. She endured continual physical abuse, derogatory remarks such as “foe,” “devil,” and “worthless,” food refusals, and exclusion from family get-togethers due to fears that she might spoil or harm other children. When others greeted her, they also kept her apart. She was made to undergo cultural cleansing procedures by her paternal aunt, Aunt Grace, who also had me spend hours in the sun, aggressively shaved her hair, and hacked off her nails. She didn’t report them to the authorities at first because she was worried that she would starve to death or that she would be arrested, but she complied with their wishes since she believed they had every right to do so.
She believes that the fact that she is a lesbian, the punishments she endured, and the persistent accusations from her father’s side that her mother is not giving her enough attention are what led to her parents’ divorce. In 2012, her mother decided to move out of the home where she and her younger sister Ana Pearl were reared. The distance between her father’s house and the house she leased in Salaam Muyonyo was around thirty km. Even at the new home, her mother and sister would hardly talk to her and would frequently pray for her.
The crisis and pressure grew after the Ugandan government enacted and signed the ANTI HOMOSEXUALITY ACT on May 29, 2023, which condemns any gay or lesbian person to life in prison. Bellinda Kezabu’s mother had to sell up her land in order to make sure that Bellinda Kezabu fled the country before any of her family members discovered where she was living and reported her to the police.
What comes next?
Critics claim that the most recent incidents are likely unmistakable signs of a witch hunt that is still occurring.
Members of the LGBTQ community have been singled out by Ugandan authorities in recent weeks due to charges made by politicians and religious organisations that students were being prepared for homosexuality in the classroom.
Ugandan authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in Jinja’s eastern area last month on suspicion of “grooming young girls into unnatural sex practices.” She was accused with excessive obscenity and is presently detained awaiting trial.
There is growing resistance from around the globe to Uganda’s proposed anti-homosexuality statute.
A number of global firms, like as Microsoft and Google, are worried that the new measure could hurt Uganda’s economy by reducing foreign investment and tourism. According to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk, the bill “will render lesbian, gay, and bisexual people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are.” A White House spokesperson referred to the bill as one of the most extreme actions taken against the LGBTQ community anywhere in the world.
