Richard Lusimbo (born 1986) is a Ugandan LGBT activist, documentary filmmaker, and public speaker who gained international attention when he was outed in a Ugandan tabloid newspaper for being gay. [1] [2]
He has since gone on to gain recognition as the Research and Documentation Officer at Sexual Minorities Uganda, and has appeared in New York Times , The Washington Post , CNN , The Advocate , The Guardian , among others. [3] [4]
In August 2011, Lusimbo began volunteering at Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), Uganda's umbrella LGBTI organisation. [5] There he was called upon to convince an LGBTI health conference, supported by the International HIV/AIDS Alliance Uganda. For the first time, Lusimbo was actively involved in the Ugandan LGBTI community, working as the Executive Assistant to Frank Mugisha, [6] the Executive Director of SMUG. In 2012 Lusimbo was hired as the Research and Documentation Officer at SMUG. [7] There he began documentation of human rights abuses experienced by the LGBTI community in Uganda, production of policy reports to highlight cases and recommendations for action by civil society and the state to ensure the health and rights of LGBTI persons. [8]
In 2012 he also became the Chair of African Research Team for Envisioning Global LGBT Human Rights, and began production of a documentary on the anti-homosexuality movement in Uganda. [8] This gave Lusimbo an opportunity to travel across the country to speak with LGBTI persons on a personal level. Not long after beginning work at SMUG, in 2013, Lusimbo was outed in a local tabloid, "Red Pepper," along with other staff of SMUG. [5] Later, his photo appeared along with his address on a Ugandan Facebook campaign to attack LGBTI Ugandans. Lusimbo had to leave his home and stay with a friend, and later leave the country for a month and stay in the United States. While in the U.S., Lusimbo used this as an opportunity to share his story and of other Ugandan LGBTI persons. He gave speeches at the University of Vermont, [9] and University of Rochester, and State University of New York at Geneseo. In April 2013, Lusimbo returned to Uganda and continued work at SMUG, until the Anti-Homosexuality Bill passed through parliament in December 2013.
Again in 2014, after the Anti-Homosexuality Act was signed into law by Ugandan President Museveni, Lusimbo was outed on the cover of the popular local tabloid, "Red Pepper," with the headline "Top Gays Speak Out: How I Became Homosexual." [5] [10] [11] [12] This brought a lot of fear. Lusimbo received many threats, hate mail on his phone and social media forcing him into hiding. [13] [14]
In May 2014, Lusimbo became the Country Coordinator for REAct (Rights, Evidence, Action). [15] He worked as a consultant to train on the human rights and monitoring system, including human rights theory, questionnaire adaptation, interviewing skills and the use of MARTUS to record cases. Part of team that developed and pilot-tested REAct. Consultancies successfully completed with the International HIV/AIDS Alliance and Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ), AIDS Legal Network (ALN), Community Health Alliance Uganda (CHAU).
In 2015, Lusimbo premiered his documentary Film, "And Still We Rise" in Kampala, Uganda. [16] The film documents the resistance and resilience of Ugandan LGBTI persons throughout the Anti-homosexuality movement. The documentary is a form of participatory film-making and was created by people in the midst of the struggle against the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda.
Lusimbo has continued to serve his community in different forms. [5] This includes the, International Planning Board of the Planning Conference, Miami Out Games, Coordinator of Pride Uganda 2015, [17] Co-Chair Alternate of the 2014–2016 Pan-African ILGA Board, [18] Co-Secretary General Alternate of the ILGA World Board 2014–2016, [19] Advisor to Benetech the designers of MARTUS software used for REAct, [5] board member, Transgender Equality Uganda from 2012 until 2015, and Boardchair from 2015 until present.
Further, Lusimbo lead the Ugandan delegation to the United States in the Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Scott Lively case in 2013. [20] Lusimbo. Lively is perhaps the most infamous example of Christian leaders involved in the Anti-Homosexuality movement in Uganda, and is being sued by SMUG in a U.S. Federal Court for crimes against humanity after he came to Uganda and took part in the drafting of the Anti-Homosexuality Act. Lusimbo has served as a witness in the case, and gave a deposition in 2015. [21]
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan face severe legal challenges and discriminations not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Afghan members of the LGBT community are forced to keep their gender identity and sexual orientation secret, in fear of violence and the death penalty. The religious nature of the country has limited any opportunity for public discussion, with any mention of homosexuality and related terms deemed taboo.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Eswatini have limited legal rights. According to Rock of Hope, a Swati LGBT advocacy group, "there is no legislation recognising LGBTIs or protecting the right to a non-heterosexual orientation and gender identity and as a result [LGBT people] cannot be open about their orientation or gender identity for fear of rejection and discrimination". Homosexuality is illegal in Eswatini, though this law is in practice unenforced. According to the 2021 Human Rights Practices Report from the US Department of State, "there has never been an arrest or prosecution for consensual same-sex conduct."
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Uganda face severe legal challenges, active discrimination, state persecution and stigmatisation not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Both male and female homosexual activity is illegal in Uganda. Originally criminalised by British colonial laws introduced when Uganda became a British protectorate, these were retained after the country gained its independence.
With the exceptions of South Africa, Cape Verde, and Mauritius, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are limited in comparison to the Americas, Western Europe and Oceania.
Scott Douglas Lively is an American activist, author, and attorney, who is the president of Abiding Truth Ministries, an anti-LGBT group based in Temecula, California. He was also a cofounder of Latvia-based group Watchmen on the Walls, state director of the California branch of the American Family Association, and a spokesman for the Oregon Citizens Alliance. He unsuccessfully attempted to be elected as the governor of Massachusetts in both 2014 and 2018.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.
Martin Ssempa is a Ugandan pastor, activist, and the founder of the Makerere Community Church. He referred to himself as Pastor Doctor Martin Ssempa, but now calls himself Gabriel Baaba Gwanga'mujje Eri Yesu. Ssempa first came to international prominence in 2010 after a presentation video he made at his church, which showcased his opposition to homosexuality, went viral.
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) is an umbrella non-governmental organization based in Kampala, Uganda. It has been described as the country's leading gay rights advocacy group.
David Kato Kisule was a Ugandan teacher and LGBT rights activist, considered a father of Uganda's gay rights movement and described as "Uganda's first openly gay man". He served as advocacy officer for Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).
The majority of the countries of the Commonwealth of Nations, formerly known as the British Commonwealth, still criminalise sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex and other forms of sexual orientation, gender identity and expression. Homosexual activity remains a criminal offence in 31 of the 56 sovereign states of the Commonwealth; and legal in only 25.
Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera is a Ugandan LGBT rights activist and the founder and executive director of the LGBT rights organization Freedom & Roam Uganda (FARUG). She received the Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders in 2011 and the Right Livelihood Award in 2015.
Frank Mugisha is a Ugandan LGBT advocate and Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), who has won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize 2011 for his activism. Mugisha is one of the most prominent advocates for LGBT rights in Uganda.
Call Me Kuchu is a 2012 American documentary film directed by Malika Zouhali-Worrall and Katherine Fairfax Wright. The film explores the struggles of the LGBT community in Uganda, focusing in part on the 2011 murder of LGBT activist David Kato.
Pepe Julian Onziema is a Ugandan LGBT rights and human rights defender and trans man. He began his human rights work in 2003. He has since participated in organizing LGBT pride celebrations in Uganda.
John "Longjones" Abdallah Wambere is a Ugandan gay rights activist and co-founder of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives, a Kampala-based LGBTI rights advocacy organization with a focus on health education. Because of the threat of violence and persecution he faces in Uganda, Wambere was approved for asylum in the United States by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on September 11, 2014. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Maurice Tomlinson is a Jamaican lawyer, law professor, and gay rights activist currently living in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. He has been a leading gay rights and HIV activist in the Caribbean for over 20 years and is one of the only Jamaican advocates to challenge the country's 1864 British colonially-imposed anti gay Sodomy Law. This law predominantly affects men who have sex with men (MSM) and carries a possible jail sentence of up to ten years imprisonment with hard labour.
Victor Juliet Mukasa is a Ugandan human rights activist and former chairman of the Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). Mukasa identifies as a trans-lesbian and is currently an executive director at Kuchu Diaspora Alliance-USA.
This is a timeline of notable events in the history of non-heterosexual conforming people of African ancestry, who may identify as LGBTIQGNC, men who have sex with men, or related culturally specific identities. This timeline includes events both in Africa, the Americas and Europe and in the global African diaspora, as the histories are very deeply linked.
Kapya John Kaoma is a Zambian, US-educated scholar, pastor and human rights activist who is most noted for his pro-LGBTQ+ activism, particularly regarding Africa.
The health access and health vulnerabilities experienced by the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning, intersex, asexual (LGBTQIA) community in South Korea are influenced by the state's continuous failure to pass anti-discrimination laws that prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity. The construction and reinforcement of the South Korean national subject, "kungmin," and the basis of Confucianism and Christianity perpetuates heteronormativity, homophobia, discrimination, and harassment towards the LGBTQI community. The minority stress model can be used to explain the consequences of daily social stressors, like prejudice and discrimination, that sexual minorities face that result in a hostile social environment. Exposure to a hostile environment can lead to health disparities within the LGBTQI community, like higher rates of depression, suicide, suicide ideation, and health risk behavior. Korean public opinion and acceptance of the LGBTQI community have improved over the past two decades, but change has been slow, considering the increased opposition from Christian activist groups. In South Korea, obstacles to LGBTQI healthcare are characterized by discrimination, a lack of medical professionals and medical facilities trained to care for LGBTQI individuals, a lack of legal protection and regulation from governmental entities, and the lack of medical care coverage to provide for the health care needs of LGBTQI individuals. The presence of Korean LGBTQI organizations is a response to the lack of access to healthcare and human rights protection in South Korea. It is also important to note that research that focuses on Korean LGBTQI health access and vulnerabilities is limited in quantity and quality as pushback from the public and government continues.