{"id":18815,"date":"2024-05-18T03:01:43","date_gmt":"2024-05-18T03:01:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/energybuzz.ph\/staging\/6915\/once-beaten-twice-evicted-lgbtq-ugandans-flee-for-safety\/"},"modified":"2024-05-18T03:01:43","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T03:01:43","slug":"once-beaten-twice-evicted-lgbtq-ugandans-flee-for-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/energybuzz.ph\/staging\/6915\/once-beaten-twice-evicted-lgbtq-ugandans-flee-for-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"Once beaten, twice evicted: LGBTQ+ Ugandans flee for safety"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) \u2013 Evicted from her business. Thrown out of home. Then pummeled by family. That was enough to persuade Cindy to flee a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ violence that is sweeping her native Uganda.<\/p>\n

It is one year since President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws ever enacted globally and a measure that has legalized a swathe of homophobic abuse.<\/p>\n

Not least forced evictions \u2013 which have more than doubled in number as landlords, families and neighbors oust LGBTQ+ Ugandans from their homes or businesses with full legal backing.<\/p>\n

The year-old act made it illegal to rent property to LGBTQ+ people such as Cindy, leading to a wave of evictions along with a surge in day-to-day discrimination.<\/p>\n

\u201cUgandan laws prohibit same-sex relationships and like in many African countries where homosexuality has been criminalized, the punishment\u2026is severe,\u201d said Arnold Akello, a Kampala-based human rights lawyer.<\/p>\n

While there is no official data on the scale of evictions, rights groups and lawyers report an uptick in distress calls, despite a slight softening of the law last month.<\/p>\n

EVICTED AND BEATEN
\n<\/strong>Cindy spent five years building up a successful hair salon on the outskirts of Kampala \u2013 or she had until February, when her landlord abruptly ordered her to leave.<\/p>\n

Given he had evicted her without due notice, Cindy planned to sue before multiple threats persuaded her to drop the case.<\/p>\n

A month later, she was evicted from her home, then attacked by relatives for \u201ccausing them ridicule for being a lesbian\u201d.<\/p>\n

Enough was finally enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cI sought refuge at a friend\u2019s house\u2026before crossing over to Kenya,\u201d Cindy told the Thomson Reuters Foundation of her escape in March.<\/p>\n

Since then, Cindy \u2013 who wanted to use only her first name \u2013 said five of her LGBTQ+ friends had also been evicted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey don\u2019t even feel safe at the secret shelter where they sought refuge,\u201d she said by phone from a safe house in Nairobi.<\/p>\n

TOUGH NEW LAWS
\n<\/strong>While Uganda had long criminalized gay sex, the AHA was harsher than its colonial-era predecessor: part of a wave of tough new anti-LGBTQ+ measures sweeping parts of Africa.<\/p>\n

In Ghana, just like in Uganda, LGBTQ+ people now risk eviction under an anti-LGBTQ+ bill that requires landlords to prevent same-sex relations on their property.<\/p>\n

The fallout from such laws is chilling, advocates say.<\/p>\n

Two months into AHA, Kampala-based rights group Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum said it had logged 36 evictions affecting 75 LGBTQ+ Ugandans. This compared to an average of six evictions a month before the law was enacted.<\/p>\n

The rights group said legal clinics trying to help evictees reported that landlords were \u201czealously\u201d enforcing the law, while most evictions outside the capital went unreported.<\/p>\n

Last month, the Constitutional Court struck down a clause in the AHA that criminalized anyone who let a property be used \u201cfor the purposes of homosexuality\u201d \u2013 but few expect much to change.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe eviction cases are on the rise because landlords and even members of the public are becoming more bold in unlawfully evicting anybody they suspect to be queer,\u201d said Saida Nakilima, a lawyer with the Kampala rights group.<\/p>\n

NO SAFE HAVEN
\n<\/strong>Take Andrew, who was thrown out of his home in the eastern city of Mbale a week after the Constitutional Court decision.<\/p>\n

The 28-year-old, who only gave his first name, said he had lived hassle-free for two years with two fellow gay men and that eviction came nine months before their tenancy expired.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe landlord told us that he could not defy the government order by housing homosexuals. He declined to offer a refund of part of the rent we had paid and even dared us to go and report him to the police,\u201d Andrew, a website developer, said by phone.<\/p>\n

At first, the trio refused to leave but after neighbors brandished threats, they moved to a secret LGBTQ+ shelter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI doubt we will get justice,\u201d Andrew said.<\/p>\n

That same week, Grace got home from work to find her landlord had hired men to break in and throw out all her possessions after neighbors had reported her.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe landlord told me that by virtue of hosting my lesbian friends, I was encouraging and promoting what he described as \u2018the devil\u2019s behavior\u2019,\u201d said the 26-year-old, who lives in Mukono, a city east of Kampala.<\/p>\n

Her parents refused to take her in, accusing her of \u201cembarrassing them\u201d, so she now lives with a friend.<\/p>\n

Even shelters that promise \u2018safe\u2019 housing for evicted LGBTQ+ Ugandans are no longer deemed safe.<\/p>\n

John Grace, coordinator of a Kampala-based NGO refuge, said shelters like his were now limiting new admissions as they had become the target of police raids and homophobic attacks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have been forced to change our mode of operations. Our premises are not open all day as they would initially, and we are only admitting extremely deserving cases,\u201d he said by email. \u2014 Reuters<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) \u2013 Evicted from her business. Thrown out of home. Then pummeled by family. That was enough to persuade Cindy to flee a surge in anti-LGBTQ+ violence that is sweeping her native Uganda. It is one year since President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA), one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws [\u2026]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[17951,14644,17949,9441,168,6827,2558,747,7287,17950],"class_list":["post-18815","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beaten","tag-bworldonline","tag-evicted","tag-flee","tag-for","tag-lgbtq","tag-once","tag-safety","tag-twice","tag-ugandans"],"yoast_head":"\nOnce beaten, twice evicted: LGBTQ+ Ugandans flee for safety - Energy Buzz<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/energybuzz.ph\/once-beaten-twice-evicted-lgbtq-ugandans-flee-for-safety\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Once beaten, twice evicted: LGBTQ+ Ugandans flee for safety - Energy Buzz\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"KAMPALA (Thomson Reuters Foundation) \u2013 Evicted from her business. 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