LGBTQIA+ - The African Mirror

Mar

23

2023

Gay activist says Uganda LGBTQ community ‘in shock’ at new law

LGBTQIA+

MEMBERS of Uganda's LGBTQ community are in shock and fear being arrested after parliament passed a new law that makes it a crime to identify as gay, and imposes tough sentences that include the death penalty in certain cases, an activist said on Wednesday. The "Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023" was passed with a near-unanimous majority by lawmakers in the east African country where anti-gay sentiment runs deep. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday the law would undermine fundamental human rights and "reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS" and urged authorities to reconsider the implementation of the law. Frank Mugisha,…

Mar

23

2023

By The African Mirror

LGBTQ+ rights: African Union watchdog goes back on its own word

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP, LGBTQIA+

THE primary human rights watchdog in Africa recently made a decision that departed from its existing practice. The African Commission of Human and Peoples’ Rights, an independent expert body within the African Union (AU) framework, used sexual or gender identity as the reason it rejected applications for observer status from three non-governmental organisations (NGOs). Author FRANS VILJOEN, Director and Professor of International Human Rights Law, Centre for Human Rights, University of Pretoria The commission said that “sexual orientation” was not an “expressly recognised right” in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights. It also said that protecting and promoting…

Mar

22

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda passes tough anti-gay law

LGBTQIA+

UGANDA'S parliament passed a law that criminalises identifying as LGBTQ, handing authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to the rights group Human Rights Watch. Supporters of the new law say it is needed to punish a broader array of LGBTQ activities, which they say threaten traditional values in the conservative and religious East African nation. In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law…

Mar

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Uganda considers bill to criminalise LGBTQ

LGBTQIA+

UGANDA'S parliament took up a bill that would criminalise identifying as LGBTQ, with lawmakers saying the current ban on same-sex relations does not go far enough. The anti-LGBTQ sentiment is deeply entrenched in the highly conservative and religious east African nation, with same-sex relations punishable by up to life in prison. More than 30 African countries ban same-sex relations, but Uganda's law, if passed, would appear to be the first to criminalise merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to Human Rights Watch. The proposed Ugandan law was introduced as a private lawmaker's bill and aims…

Feb

09

2023

By HUMPHREY MALALO

Housemate denies murder of Kenyan LGBTQ activist

LGBTQIA+

THE housemate of Kenyan model, designer and LGBTQ rights campaigner Edwin Chiloba, whose body was found in a metal box last month, denied the charge of murder on Wednesday. Jacktone Odhiambo, who police believe to have been in a relationship with Chiloba, was accused of murdering him between the night of December 31 and January 3. Chiloba died from suffocation caused by socks stuffed into his mouth, a pathologist said last month. His death sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ community in Kenya, where homosexuality is taboo and gay sex is punishable by 14 years in prison, although that law is rarely enforced. Thomson Reuters…

Mar

04

2023

By ELIAS BIRYABAREMA

LGBT Ugandans face backlash as parliament launches schools investigation

LGBTQIA+, LGBT+

DAYS after Uganda's parliament ordered an investigation last month into the alleged promotion of homosexuality in schools, a video appeared online identifying Kampala resident Eric Ndawula as gay. Ndawula, 26, said his landlord showed him the video, which was posted by someone whose name he did not recognise. The landlord then issued him a notice of eviction, saying the building could not accommodate a gay person. "I am now a threat to the children around because I am going to recruit them into homosexuality," Ndawula told Reuters ironically. His experience is one example of a wave of discrimination and violence…

Feb

07

2023

By The African Mirror

Crimilising LGBT people is a sin and an injustice – Pope

LGBTQIA+, LGBT+

PHILIP PULLELLA Pope Francis said that laws criminalising LGBT people are a sin and an injustice because God loves and accompanies people with same-sex attraction. Francis, who made his remarks in response to a reporter's question aboard the plane returning from a two-country trip to Africa, received the full backing of his comments from two other Christian leaders on the plane with him. "The criminalisation of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored," said Francis, who then cited unnamed statistics according to which 50 countries criminalise LGBT people "in one way or another" and about 10 others have laws including the…

Jan

16

2023

By The African Mirror

Transgender Kenyans seek refuge amid backlash over activist’s death

LGBTQIA+

AYENAT MERSIE FOR the first time in years, Arya Rams falls asleep and wakes up each day without a dense knot of fear in her chest. She lives in a room in a safe house deep in Kenya's Rift Valley, supported by the Dutch non-governmental organisation Trans Rescue. Being transgender in Kenya can be dangerous. In 2021, her friend was stoned to death by a mob on a beach near the city of Malindi, she said. A few months later, Arya said she was chased by people wielding machetes. Arya, 27, said the protections of the safe house have been…

Jan

12

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenyan LGBTQ activist was killed by asphyxiation, pathologist says

LGBTQIA+

KENYAN LGBTQ rights campaigner Edwin Chiloba, whose body was found in a metal box on the roadside near the city of Eldoret last week, died from suffocation caused by socks stuffed into his mouth, a pathologist said. "(He) died from asphyxia which is caused by smothering. We found that he had a piece of jeans trouser which was tied around the mouth, and around the nose," pathologist Johansen Oduor told reporters. "There were socks which were stuffed in the mouth," Oduor said, adding that Chiloba showed no other signs of injury. Police believe Chiloba, a fashion model and designer, was…

Jan

11

2023

By The African Mirror

Kenyan LGBTQ activist’s roommate suspected in his death, police say

LGBTQIA+

ONE of the suspects in the death last week of prominent Kenyan LGBTQ rights campaigner Edwin Chiloba is his roommate with whom he is "believed to have been in (a) close relationship," the police said. Chiloba's body was found in a metal box after being dumped out of a vehicle. His death sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ community in Kenya, where homosexuality is taboo and gay sex is punishable by 14 years in prison, although that law is rarely enforced. A police affidavit released by a court in Chiloba's hometown of Eldoret on Monday said he is believed to have died…