Demonstrators in Pretoria and Cape Town marched on Friday to protest against Uganda’s new law that criminalizes being openly LGBTQ. The law would make it a criminal offense to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ), even if there is no same-sex activity.
While Uganda is among more than 30 African countries that already prohibit same-sex relations, the new law goes further. The demonstrators called on Uganda’s president, Yoweri Museveni, not to sign the bill.
Human Rights Watch said it would be the first law of its kind in the world. “Queer people don’t owe anyone anything, but we also deserve to live just like everyone else.
You can’t strip all our rights. This is a world emergency,” said Papa De DeLovie Kwagala, a Ugandan LGBTQ rights activist and photographer among about 100 people protesting outside the United Nations Information Centre in Pretoria.
