🌐 5 things to know right now

• European court slams Russia in two cases of homophobic violence: On Sept. 12, the European Court of Human Rights found Russia guilty of two cases of homophobic police violence. In one case, a man was kidnapped in 2017 by authorities and beaten while in custody. In the second case, the court sided with 11 Russians who said they had been unlawfully arrested during LGBTQ+ protests from 2011 to 2012. Russia was ordered to pay each of the victims up to €52,000 ($56,000) in damages.

• Kenyan upholds LGBTQ+ NGO registration: Kenya’s Supreme Court rejected the government’s bid to overturn a ruling ordering it to recognize the National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission as an NGO. The appeal came from MP Peter Kaluma, who claimed the NGO would support the “promotion” of homosexuality. The court scolded Kaluma, writing that, as a member of parliament, he “ought to have known that this application was misconceived.”

• Elle Hungary cover features gay fathers: The Hungarian edition of Elle Magazine put two gay fathers and their baby on the cover, under the headline “Born From Love”. Elle editors said that they wanted to “contribute to the acceptance of rainbow families” as the Hungarian government continues to introduce more anti-LGBTQ+ policies.

• Andorra’s prime minister comes out as gay: Xavier Espot Zamora, Prime Minister of the tiny European country of Andorra, revealed that he is gay during an interview with the nation’s public broadcaster. He said that he’s “never hid it,” and added that his orientation has no bearing on his politics. He said he hopes that his coming out might help young people see that “regardless of their condition or sexual orientation, (they) can prosper in this country.”

• Almost half of Grindr’s staff resign: Dating app Grindr lost 45% of its employees after announcing a strict return-to-the-office policy – shortly after a majority of staff announced they planned to unionize. The new schedule would require workers to be in the office two days a week, and would force many employees to relocate. The Communications Workers of America union has filed a labor complaint against the company.

Anti-Gay Law Leaves Nowhere To Turn For Uganda’s LGBTQ+

KAMPALA — Just two days after the Ugandan Parliament passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act in March, Sam received a call. Her landlord asked her to leave the house she had been renting for almost two years in Kyebando-Kanyanya village, about 4 miles from Kampala.

When Sam, a lesbian who prefers to be identified by one name for fear of stigmatization, asked why she was being evicted, her landlord asked to meet her the following day in the presence of the local chairman (a village leader). She declined, asking for a one-on-one meeting. At the meeting, Sam’s landlord told her that her son, a human rights lawyer, warned her the new law would punish landlords who rent rooms to “homosexuals.”

“‘I don’t want to be arrested on accusations of promoting homosexuality because you are my tenant,’” Sam says the landlord told her.

The landlord told her she — and the community — knew she was in a sexual relationship with another woman. At the time, Sam’s partner had not been living in the country for months, but with the probability of the president signing the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law, the witch hunt was already on to identify those who should be reported.

Sam didn’t deny or confirm her sexual identity to the landlord but immediately vacated the premises.President Yoweri Museveni’s recent signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act into law threatens to make the lives of community members who identify as LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer) even more difficult, as landlords will face consequences for renting property to them.

According to reports published in April and May by the Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, a local nongovernmental organization that provides legal aid, there was increased violence, including evictions of LGBTQ persons in Uganda, after Parliament passed the bill but before the president signed it.

In the two-month period from March 21, when Parliament passed the bill, to May 29, the last day before the law came into force, HRAPF handled 141 cases involving LGBTQ or suspected LGBTQ persons. This is twice as many incidents than were reported in all of 2021.

Of these cases, 65% involved violence or violations that targeted individuals purely or partly on the basis of their presumed sexuality and gender identity, and affected a total of 159 persons. Twenty-eight of these cases were evictions, affecting 66 persons.

In the 21-day period after the law came into force, from May 30 to June 20, HRAPF handled a further 43 cases involving LGBTQ persons, of which eight cases were evictions that affected nine individuals. The evictions were mostly carried out by property owners, though local council leaders were also involved in some. The evictions in these three weeks are almost three times as many as were reported in all of 2021 and only slightly higher than those recorded in the second half of 2020.

Sam believes the bill has ruined the relationship between landlords — many of whom were previously tolerant of members of the LGBTQ community — and tenants.

A statement issued by Anita Among, speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, after the presidential signing of the bill, reads, “I now encourage the duty bearers under the law to execute the mandate bestowed upon them in the Anti-Homosexuality Act. The people of Uganda have spoken, and it is your duty to now enforce the law in a fair, steadfast and firm manner.”

The law is explicit on the risks to those thought to be housing members of the community. The main section dealing with tenancy is titled “Brothels,” but it could easily be construed as anyone renting property to someone from the community. Clause B of section 12 reads, “A person being the owner or occupier of premises or having or acting or assisting in the management or control of the premises, induces or knowingly causes any man or woman to resort to or be upon such premises for the purpose of being unlawfully and carnally known by any man or woman of the same sex whether such carnal knowledge is intended to be with any particular man or woman, commits an offence and is liable, on conviction, to imprisonment for one year.”

But John Musila, member of Parliament for the Bubulo East constituency, says, “Those claiming to be evicted are artificial homosexuals promoting homosexuality for monetary gains. No landlord will come to look through your door to see who you are sleeping with. Then how can they be punished for housing people they have not caught in the act of sex?”

The lawmaker, who voted for the Anti-Homosexuality Act, adds, “The law is very clear. It doesn’t discriminate or punish someone for being gay or a lesbian because we know that in our African communities, we have always had these people.” Speaking about a 75-year-old bisexual woman in his village, whom the community knows about and who has never been attacked, he says, “The law only punishes those who are caught in the homosexual act: a man having sex with a man, an individual raping a minor, a woman having sex with a woman. It also punishes those who promote it.”

Musila also says that the HRAPF reports on evictions and violence against the community are a ploy to get donor funding and “not an actual reflection of events where homosexuals were caught having sex, therefore breaking the law.”

Musila’s statements reflect the confusing language of the Anti-Homosexuality Act, which lists one of its primary principles as “prohibiting any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex and the promotion or recognition of sexual relations between persons of the same sex.”

Those being evicted could be suffering an unintended consequence of the law. Eron Kiiza, a human rights lawyer, says landlords are required by the law to terminate the tenancy of those they discover “engaged in homosexuality.” Not knowing that their tenant is a member of the LGBTQ community is a legal defense, but one that is difficult for landlords to prove. If members of the community are found living in a certain premise, the landlord could still be subjected to criminal proceedings which are traumatizing and can lead to stigmatization of the landlord even if they eventually get acquitted. Kiiza also adds that prior to the law, there were already landlords who were hostile to the community due to religious or cultural reasons. The new law not only empowers them to evict LGBTQ individuals but also obligates them to do so as soon as they discover their sexuality.

Read the full story, translated by Worldcrunch here.

— Nakisanze Segawa & Beatrice Lamwaka / Global Press Journal

👉 OTHERWISE

Here are some other great LGBTQ+ reads we spotted for you this week:

• From Outsports: It’s time for LGBTQ fans to raise alarms about Saudi ownership in American sports

• From Outright International: A Mountain on My Shoulders: 18 Months of Taliban Persecution of LGBTIQ Afghans

• From Gaysi: Queer People In Abusive Relationships Do Not Get To Rest

• From The Guardian: I have never, in my adult life, felt less safe to be gay in public in the US

• From Queerty: Gay artist selling 68 pairs of underpants men left at his home for $50K