On September 2, 2025, Burkina Faso’s transitional parliament passed a sweeping reform to its Persons and Family Code, criminalizing homosexuality for the first time in the country’s history. Under the new law, acts deemed to “promote homosexual practices” carry sentences of two to five years in prison, steep fines, and even deportation for foreign nationals. […]
Opinion Piece
Kampala, September 2025—When Indiana’s Lieutenant Governor Micah Beckwith declared that the separation of church and state is “a dangerous falsehood weaponised to dismantle our Republic,” many Americans were shocked. For LGBTQ Ugandans, however, this kind of rhetoric feels disturbingly familiar—because we’ve lived through the consequences of politicians blurring the line between religion and governance. The […]
As Uganda approaches its 2026 general elections, much of the public discourse focuses on candidates, party alliances, and the promise of democratic renewal. Yet, for LGBTQ Ugandans, the ballot box represents something very different: a heightened period of fear and exposure. In a country where queer identities are criminalised and stigmatised, elections are not about […]
A Familiar Song with a Different Tune Reading about Christian nationalist influence in American schools, mandating biblical teachings, defunding public schools, and injecting religious doctrine into curricula—echoes too closely the patterns once seen in Uganda, albeit with different contours. In the U.S., public schools, long pillars of inclusive, secular education, are becoming battlegrounds, facing challenges […]
To listen to Chimano is to hear the story of countless queer Ugandans who cannot speak for themselves.
Nothing articulates the vilest threat to human dignity quite like a settled government broadcasting the return of primitive, medieval-style justice, with women once again facing death by stoning. Reports from early 2024 reveal that Taliban Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada explicitly announced the re introduction of public stoning—alongside flogging—for women accused of adultery. Statements including “We will […]
Uganda’s LGBTQ+ community is facing an unprecedented dual crisis: escalating criminalisation and a dangerous collapse in HIV services due to global funding cuts. A recent UNAIDS report warns that key populations—gay men, transgender people, sex workers, and people who inject drugs, are at greater risk than ever, as legal repression and reduced donour funding undermine decades […]
By Gracie Lunah Steph for Kuchu Times In a world that too often erases disabled and queer lives, July’s Disability Pride Month offers a rare moment to claim space and demand visibility. For many queer disabled people, especially in Uganda, pride is not a parade; it is a risk, a hope, a survival strategy. This […]
So all these mental gymnastics about how “they/them” doesn’t exist in African languages? Yeah, nice try. Our languages are more nuanced than we give them credit for. The problem isn’t the grammar, it’s the refusal to listen when someone tells you how they want to be seen.
Corporations and entities talk a big game when it comes to standing up for the marginalized, but when push comes to shove and they have to actually make bottom line decisions to stand with these communities, their “values” are not that deep afterall.