Real stories from the World - LGBTQ+

Lynn from Uganda

Hi. Am a lesbian from Uganda. I am 30 years old and hailing from the Nothern part of the country. Being LGBT in Uganda is hard enough. Being LGBT and from northern Uganda is worse. That region was war torn for over 20 years and quite backward. Cultural norms are still valued and thus have the power to influence when viewing homosexuality cannot be underestimated. When found out to be gay, one can be isolated or in extreme cases the clan members under the orders of the clan leader would set a homosexual person on fire and leave the fore fathers to decide their fate.

I first found out I was different when I was 10. At the time i was safe since I couldn't tell anyone. At 14 when I got the courage to ask a girl out, the school expelled over a dozen girls over lesbianism so I held back since I didn't want my parents to find out. It's after I joined university that I got my first girlfriend. The university had a few LGBT persons and none was persecuted for their sexual orientation mainly because we had very many international students.

After university when I moved back north for work it was extremely hard being LGBT. That's about the time when a local newspaper outed over 200 suspected LBGT which led to the battering and death of an activist. I decided to head back into that closet and while at it maybe get to see Narnia.

I just couldn't come out. At some point in 2014, my father was elected as a clan head and that did it for me, the idea of facing judgement from my father and the possibility of getting burned alive scared the hell out of me. I stopped hanging out with other LGBT people since society called us "abasiyazi (meaning fags)". When my girlfriend would visit I would introduce her to neighbors as a wife to a brother.

In 2015 my neighbor outed me to our landlord while I was out of the district for work. My landlord called the police and the area chairman and broke into my house and threw my property out. By the time I got back I couldn't take him to court or ask him to replace my property because I was too scared to seek justice. I know some who have been thrown out of homes under similar circumstances but there's nothing we can do but keep quiet.

Church is a different story. Every pastor is preaching against homosexuality. Calling it an evil from the western world. Sitting through a service is pure torture and many LGBT opt out. Religious and community heads have taken to TV and radio to preach hate and ask government to help them protect their children and country. They claim we corrupt the morals of innocents and that our views and acts are incompatible with our motto that states "For God and my Country"

Living in a country where it's dangerous to be LGBT takes a toll on one. You learn to live each day looking over your shoulder wondering when you will be outed.

Lynn.