FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 3, 2024
Contact:
Twiggy Pucci Garçon,
Chief Strategy Officer
347-313-6842
[email protected]
True Colors United Condemns Uganda Constitutional
Court Ruling on LGBTQIA+ Criminalization Law
The highest court of Uganda ruled to keep intact the majority of the nation’s law
criminalizing LGBTQIA+ people, including death penalty sentencing provisions.
New York, NY — Today, April 3, 2024, the Constitutional Court of Uganda issued a ruling in favor of retaining the majority of the provisions of the country’s LGBTQIA+ criminalization law, enacted in May of 2023 and widely decried as one of the most extreme laws of its kind in the world. In justifying their decision to uphold the majority of this law, including the death penalty attached to some acts made criminal by the law, the Court referred to the US Supreme Court decision Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health, stating that the SCOTUS ruling supports a legal interpretation in which “the nation’s history and traditions, as well as the dictates of democracy and rule of law. . .over-rule the broader right to individual autonomy.”
“This court ruling — and the underlying law criminalizing LGBTQIA+ individuals in Uganda — is a devastating blow to the basic human rights of LGBTQIA+ Ugandans, and its effects will reach far beyond its borders,” said Coco Wheeler, Senior Director of International Programs at True Colors United, an international nonprofit organization working to advance housing justice for LGBTQIA+ youth and young adults. “In our work in East Africa, we’ve met and spoken with many LGBTQIA+ individuals who have fled Uganda since the law first took effect, citing the threat of the law itself and the culture of violence against LGBTQIA+ people it has encouraged. In Uganda, in Ghana, and in other nations where similar political violence is faced by LGBTQIA+ Africans, the conversation isn’t about LGBTQIA+ homelessness. It’s about ‘safe houses’ and how LGBTQIA+ people can get visas to leave their countries and find refuge elsewhere.”
The 2023 law was passed by Uganda’s parliament and signed into law partially in response to a decades-long colonialist effort by United States-based evangelical Christian organizations, who spent over $54 million “to influence laws, policies, and public opinion against sexual and reproductive rights” across the African continent between 2008-2020. An investigation by OpenDemocracy found that over the course of one decade, over $20 million of that $54 million was spent specifically to advance these efforts in Uganda.
“Today’s court ruling should be a wake-up call for U.S.-based advocates for LGBTQIA+ and human rights. The Christian nationalist extremists we’re working to defeat in Congress and in state legislatures across the country aren’t just influencing policy in our own backyard. They’re looking for anywhere they can find a political foothold,” said Twiggy Pucci Garçon, Chief Strategy Officer at True Colors United. “Our freedom is inseparable from the freedom of LGBTQIA+ people around the world. We have much to learn from the resistance of our siblings and much to gain by entering into meaningful relationship with those living beyond our imaginary borders.”
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