Transgender Europe (TGEU) condemns the violent crackdown on Ugandan LGBTI pride events and the brutal attitude of the Ugandan government towards LGBTI communities. Ugandan activists present at an event organised at Kampala’s Club Venom last week have told how the event was raided by the police, and people present were brutally treated.
Last Thursday night, August 4th, the Ugandan police raided the pageant to crown Mr/Ms/Mx Uganda Pride at an event organised for the LGBTI community. While a statement released by the Ugandan government yesterday affirmed that, “no one was hurt or injured during the exercise”, several people present at the time of the event were violently arrested, detained, beaten, abused, humiliated, unwillingly photographed, and threatened.
The government’s statement also goes so far as to claim that, “whereas the promotion of homosexuality is criminalised under the penal code, there is no violence against the LGBT community in Uganda.” However, many persons at the event, particularly trans persons were targeted during the raid, and were physically and sexually assaulted by the police. There are also documented accounts of institutional and societal violence against members of the LGBTI community in the country.
According to activists in Uganda, two transmen were detained in male cells, and severely harassed by other inmates. To avoid police abuse, a person also jumped from the building and is currently in critical condition at a private hospital.
TGEU calls on Ugandan authorities to make visible efforts to protect the rights of all LGBTI people in the country.