Uganda – Where being Gay is Illegal

Imagine a life where just the fact that you are gay makes you have to hide who you are. Where you live a life in the darkness of your reality as you know that by admitting that you are gay, not only would you be ostracised, but you fear violent retribution from both the police and your own community.

It is hard to imagine isn’t it? Well, this is the reality of those homosexual people who live in Uganda, as many as 500,000 homosexuals live in the country according to human rights organisations. In Uganda being homosexual is punishable by life imprisonment as it is criminalised under their penal code. An anti-homosexuality bill is due to be passed in June is advocating the death penalty for aggravated homosexuality; or in simpler terms, gay people practising sex, or gay people that have sex with anyone under the age of 18. This bill would also make it a crime not to report someone that you know to be homosexual. I know, how can this be allowed to happen?

Last year a local newspaper, the Rolling Stone published a list of the top 100 homosexuals under the headline “Hang them”, how in this day and age is this allowed to continue? In Uganda , homosexuals face a life of harassment, extortion, death threats and extreme violence each day of their lives. Homosexuals face being forced into heterosexual marriage, sacked by their employees and even forced into a “correctional rape”.

Many Ugandan’s flee their country in order to escape their daily plight of severe beatings as a result of their homosexuality. Many ask, why was I born gay, and if so, why was I born in Africa?

The Radio 1 DJ, Scott Mills travelled to Uganda to make people aware of the daily horror that homosexual Ugandan’s suffer. Whilst watching this film, you would be forgiven for thinking that you were watching a historical film from a time long ago and not in this day and age, where we as Westerners take for granted the freedom that we are awarded.