Uganda’s LGBT Community braves the culture shock, Holds a Cautious Pride March







The African culture does not recognize anything homosexual in nature, so it came as part of a reprieve when a law punishing homosexual acts with life in prison was annulled last year in Uganda, after strong international pressure.


The Law might have been annulled but the public’s attitude to homosexuals have not changed, so on Saturday hundreds of Ugandans gathered for a gay-rights march along the shores of Lake Victoria.


About 400 people, some trying to mask their identities by covering their faces, turned up for the March in Entebbe, southwest of the Ugandan capital Kampala, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Homosexuality remains illegal in Uganda. Social attitudes toward the LGBT community have also grown increasingly negative in recent years. Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has even encouraged individuals to report any “suspicious” homosexual activity, the Guardian reports.

The Journal reports that some things have gotten easier for the LGBT community — they no longer have to deal with frequent police raids, while eviction rates of gay tenants have also slowed. But conservative lawmakers have vowed to reinstate the law mandating life in prison.

“We’re happy the government realized there are more pressing issues than people’s sexual orientation,” Kasha Jacqueline, who took part in the march, told the Journal. “But the struggle continues.”

Source: www.time.com

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