Ugandan police detain two women reported for kissing in public
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan police detained two women who were reported by their neighbors to be engaging in same-sex activities in a remote part of northwestern Uganda, a police spokesperson said on Thursday, one of the first known instances of arrests under an anti-LGBTQ law enacted in 2023.
The women were arrested in the city of Arua on Feb. 18 after police were notified they were often seen kissing. When the police arrived, they caught the couple “red-handed on the cement floor,” said spokesperson Josephine Angucia.
The women later were freed on police bond and have yet to be charged as investigations proceed, she said.
The law, enacted in 2023, was supported by many in this East African country but widely condemned by rights activists and others abroad. Its promoters said it was necessary to protect children.
While it doesn’t criminalize identifying as LGBTQ, it mandates the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” which is defined as cases of sexual relations involving people infected with HIV, as well as with minors and other categories of vulnerable people.
The detention of the women in Arua “underscores the grim reality we are facing on the ground under the Anti-Homosexuality Act,” said Frank Mugisha, a prominent LGBTQ leader in Uganda. “We have seen a surge in a targeted crackdown that goes beyond just arrests; it has fueled a dangerous cycle of blackmail and extortion.”
Same-sex activity is separately criminalized in Uganda under a colonial-era law that punishes relations against “the order of nature.”
Homosexuality is criminalized in many of Africa’s 54 countries. The West African nation of Senegal is currently trying to impose tougher penalties for same-sex activity.