Support for LGBTQI in Uganda Makes a Difference

Photo by FrankvandenBergh

Dear Colleague,

There is hope, even during these times of doom and gloom, of war and impending war, of mounting and continuing attacks on human and civil rights, as well as attempts to setback gains that LGBTQ+ individuals and families have achieved here at home in USA, and around the world. There is hope because of amazing, continuing, and valiant efforts to counter assaults on human dignity and livelihood in a number of countries, including Uganda. LGBTQ+ community-based efforts there continue, despite being resource starved and challenged to operate given an existing anti-homosexuality law.

One recent example of success, relayed by one of the two NGO’s supported by this GoFundMe Campaign, is that donated legal help provided to one LGBTQI+ individual, among others, resulted in charges against him being dropped for violating Uganda’s onerous anti-homosexuality law. Frightened, the individual went into hiding in the wilderness, and it took time before he would learn that the charges against him had been dropped because of the legal assistance he received challenging the initial charges and arrest as having been pursued without sufficient evidence. The victim of injustice learned over the radio about the charges having been dropped while hiding in the wilderness. Without his advocates and allies intervening with local police authorities and speaking about the legal success they achieved in court, publicly, over the radio, he would have remained in the wilderness.

Support from ordinary people, here in USA, like you, has lifted hope and supported successful efforts initiated locally in Uganda by LGBTQI+ individuals and their allies. Ugandan activists have set up safe houses, fed newly fired and evicted individuals, assisted LGBTQI+ people in relocating elsewhere and in neighboring Kenya, linked people in need of health education and care to services that honor their privacy, and provided legal aid to individuals facing legal charges for just being an LGBTQI+ individual.

Importantly, LGBTQI+ Ugandans and their allies have mounted a legal challenge in the Constitutional Court of Uganda where there is a very good chance that an “anti-homosexuality national law” passed last spring will be overturned. The court is currently going over legal arguments and preparing to issue a ruling. A similar law was previously overturned by the Court. Hope is further boosted by very real international economic pressure urging Uganda to move closer rather than further away from following international human rights conventions.

However, there is better news giving hope a boost. One of the two community efforts supported by this GoFundMe Campaign has secured capital resources to engage in micro industries, farming among them specifically, to build sustainability for community-based efforts by LGBTQI+ individuals and their allies through the growing of their own food with volunteer staffing provided by program beneficiaries. The ability to grow their own food will leverage resources received from you to continue the services and meet need. They have received an initial installment of $5,000 of a promised $20,000 in needed capital funding from another international source, enough to move forward with the acquisition of real property by the NGO.

As they ramp up and begin farming, resources are needed over the coming months, before harvesting begins, to continue to meet the feeding of safely housed individuals, including youth rejected by family, older individuals fired by their employers or evicted by their landlords merely because they are LGBTQI+ Ugandans. This heroic effort depends on your and my generosity in the interim as they build local capacity to sustain their volunteer driven efforts. Amazingly, two individuals engaged voluntarily in the work continue to risks their lives after surviving vicious attempts on their lives.

I urge you, as a friend, to renew your support if you have already given. If you haven’t yet donated, this is your opportunity to counter religious zealots on the political right who are funding efforts to trample on human rights and impose their religion-based beliefs on others. Worse yet, they encourage anti-LGBTQI violence.

To date, this GoFundMe campaign has raised nearly $10,000 since April 2023. Please give generously! Your $25, $50, $75, $100 or more gifts will continue to make a difference. Thank you!

Your friend,

Gil Gerald.