Emergency funds needed—LGBT Ugandans under attack

Uganda’s LGBTQ community is once again under attack!

Emergency funds are needed for LGBTQI+, sex workers, HIV+ folks, and other minorities who are now targeted. Please help us keep people safe!

“I’m Ivan Kakonge with Royal Rays Initiative Uganda, one of the many LGBTQI+ groups now criminalized in Uganda. Please donate to our emergency fundraiser.”

A new anti-gay bill has passed Parliament, but has yet to be signed into law. We are already seeing an increase in human rights abuses against queer and trans people everywhere. Uganda is increasingly unlivable for the LGBTQI+ community. In the last few months, many queer people have been attacked by mobs, driven out of their homes, denied access to health services, and forcibly outed.

“We need emergency funds urgently to keep people alive. We need to get people out of jail. We need to give people food and medicine. We need to get people to safe houses. People are terrified,” said Kakonge.

Royal Rays Initiative Uganda is on the ground doing frontline work supporting LGBTQ people in Uganda. Members include queer and trans people, sex workers, HIV-positive individuals, and other marginalized people. Due to the current situation, the organization has been increasingly unable to provide effective support to its members, given the risk of imprisonment and violence.

Multiple members, including Royal Rays board members, have recently been imprisoned, tortured, and denied access to life saving medication.

Calling for the international community to take action

“The bill is creating tension and fear within the LGBTQ community in Uganda and putting our lives at risk,” said Kakonge, deputy executive director of Royal Rays Initiative, speaking to the Globe and Mail, Canada’s national newspaper. “Some of our most at-risk members have been attacked physically and verbally. As a result of these actions, the government through the law enforcers have started hunting for all the LGBTQ members in Uganda and we are not safe at all.”

The LGBTQ community in Uganda desperately needs your help. Even a small donation goes a long way to helping us save lives.

"We are on the ground, everyday, doing what we can to keep the community safe. But we need your help."

Emergency funds are needed to pay for the release of imprisoned members, for relocation to a safe house, and to pay for basic needs like food and medicine.

Our goal is to raise $4000 to get emergency support to terrified LGBTQ community members right away. Funds raised will go directly to the Royal Rays team on the ground in Uganda, who are working to get the funds to those who need it most.