 | |
| Formation | 2004 |
|---|---|
Executive Director | Frank Mugisha |
| Pepe Julian Onziema | |
| Website | https://smuginternational.org/ |
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. [1]
One of their achievements include director Pepe Julian Onziema leading a coalition of 55 civil society organizations to overturn the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2014. [2]
Founders included Victor Mukasa and Sylvia Tamale. Executive director Frank Mugisha and deputy director Pepe Julian Onziema both took office in 2007. Advocacy officer David Kato was the advocacy and litigation officer until his murder in January 2011. SMUG advocates for the protection and promotion of human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Ugandans.
The network composed of several organizations member was founded in 2004 by:
Victor Mukasa, a trans man activist, founded Sexual Minorities Uganda on 3 March 2004 in Kampala at the Kaival restaurant and Internet cafe. The earliest members included Val Kalende. Kamuhangire.E and David Kato, who were among the first board members. Members of SMUG achieved controversy through their activism and legal troubles for much of the organization's history, and the profile of the organization in the later-2000s due to the rise of homophobic populism in the country and the introduction of the Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill in the Parliament by David Bahati.
The Ugandan newspaper Rolling Stone , a publication unrelated to the American magazine of the same name, which rejected the Ugandan paper and called its actions as "horrific", published a gallery of "100 Pictures of Uganda's Top Homos Leak" and stated "Hang Them". [3] [4] In response, four members of SMUG whose faces appeared in the magazine, David Kato Kisule, Kasha Nabagesera, Nabirye Mariam, and Pepe Julian Onziema "Patience", filed a petition with the High Court seeking to force the paper to cease distribution of the article. The court granted the petition on 2 November 2010, effectively ending the publication of Ugandan Rolling Stone. [5] [6] [7]
On 26 January 2011, Kato, whose picture had been featured on the cover of the issue of Rolling Stone in question, was assaulted in his home in Mukono Town by his acquaintance Sidney Nsubuga Enoch, 22, who hit him twice in the head with a hammer found in Kato's bathroom before fleeing on foot. The apparent motive was a disagreement about sexual services and robbery. [8] Kato died en route to the Kawolo Hospital. The murder was decried by Human Rights Watch [9] and senior Africa researcher Maria Burnett said that "David Kato's death is a tragic loss to the human rights community".
On 15 September 2011, SMUG's executive director Frank Mugisha was named the recipient of the annual Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award for his activism. [10] Mugisha also received the Rafto Prize for Human Rights on behalf of SMUG on 6 September 2011. [11]
In 2012, [12] SMUG and several Ugandans, including Onziema, Mukasa, and Mugisha, together with the Center for Constitutional Rights initiated legal action in U.S. Federal District Court using the Alien Tort Statute to sue American evangelist Scott Lively for crimes against humanity for his work on the Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill. [13] Lively's work has been described as inciting the persecution of gay men and lesbians [12] and as "conduct ... actively trying to harm and deprive other people of their rights". [14] [15]
In August 2013, Judge Michael A. Ponsor ruled that the plaintiffs were on solid ground under international and federal law in rejecting a jurisdictional challenge to the suit. He also ruled that First Amendment defenses for Lively's conduct were premature. [16] On the same year, Uganda's government draft the Ant Homosexual Bill that takes away basic human rights and criminalize anyone who identifies as a member LGBTQ Community . "As soon as parliament passed the AHA on 20 December 2013, violations against LGBTI people increased' [17] . There were many wrongful arrests and violations committed by the local police. Often times, Victims took asylum at neighboring states were conditions were less atrocious, and there are Acts in place for their protection. Moreover, the Bill was then blocked by Uganda's supreme court, a few months later ,as it was deemed unconstitutional. [18]
In 2017, Lehendakari Iñigo Urkullu of the Basque Government presented SMUG with the René Cassin award.
In August 2022, SMUG was ordered by the Ugandan government to immediately shut down. The government said that SMUG had failed to properly register its name with the National Bureau for Non-Governmental Organizations. The NGO Bureau issued a statement saying that SMUG's registration attempt in 2012 was rejected because its full name was deemed "undesirable". In response to the shutdown order, executive director Frank Mugisha called it "a clear witch hunt rooted in systematic homophobia, fuelled by anti-gay and anti-gender movements." [19] This was after numerous attempts to register the Organization in order to continue serving and representing the LGBTQ+ community. Even thought they are deemed unconstitutional per parliament advocacy, the organizations does not only represent individuals of the LGBT community, they also help protect basics human right that has been the issue in marginalized community. [20]
On May 26, 2023, the Ant gay bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni. The bill strictly states that any individual who has sexual relations with another of the same sex will either be incarcerated for life or receive the death penalty. This move drew widespread international condemnation, with human rights organizations, Western governments, and activists criticizing the law as a violation of basic human rights, and expressing concern about the potential consequences for the LGBTQ+ community. The law reflects strong anti-LGBTQ+ sentiments in Uganda where homosexuality is often viewed as culturally unacceptable and against religious beliefs. Despite international pressure, Ugandan lawmakers argued that the legislation was necessary to protect the country's cultural values and children from these influences. [21]
"Gay agenda" or "homosexual agenda" is a pejorative term used by sectors of the Christian religious right as a disparaging way to describe the advocacy of cultural acceptance and normalization of non-heterosexual sexual orientations and relationships. The term originated among social conservatives in the United States and has been adopted in nations with active anti-LGBT movements such as Hungary, Uganda, Russia and Turkey.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ) people in Ghana face severe challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Sexual acts between males have been illegal as "unnatural carnal knowledge" in Ghana since the colonial era. The majority of Ghana's population hold anti-LGBTQ sentiments. Physical and violent homophobic attacks against LGBTQ people occur, and are often encouraged by the media and religious and political leaders. At times, government officials, such as police, engage in such acts of violence. Young gay people are known to be disowned by their families and communities and evicted from their homes. Families often seek conversion therapy from religious groups when same-sex orientation or non-conforming gender identity is disclosed; such "therapy" is reported to be commonly administered in abusive and inhumane settings.
The Hirschfeld-Eddy Foundation was founded in Berlin in June 2007. It is a foundation focused on human rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBTQ) people.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Uganda face severe legal and social challenges not experienced by non-LGBTQ residents. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women in Uganda. It was originally criminalised by British colonial laws introduced when Uganda became a British protectorate, and these laws have been retained since the country gained its independence.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights in Africa are generally poor 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.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Liberia face legal and social challenges which others in the country do not experience. LGBTQ people in Liberia encounter widespread discrimination, including harassment, death threats, and at times physical attacks. Several prominent Liberian politicians and organizations have campaigned to restrict LGBTQ rights further, while several local, Liberian-based organizations exist to advocate and provide services for the LGBTQ community in Liberia. Same-sex sexual activity is criminalized regardless of the gender of those involved, with a maximum penalty of three years in prison, and same-sex marriage is illegal.
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.
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).
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.
Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG) is a human rights organization that addresses discrimination against lesbian, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LBTIQ) people in Uganda.
Pepe Julian Onziema is a Ugandan LGBT rights and human rights activist. He began his human rights work in 2003.
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.
Richard Lusimbo 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.
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.
Val Kalende is a LGBTI activist from Uganda. After coming out as a lesbian in 2003, she became involved in Ugandan LGBT activism. In 2018, she stated she was no longer a lesbian, having been "transformed by God's love".