ALTHOUGH the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill (AHB) remains stalled one year after it was first introduced in the Ugandan Parliament, the intimidation, harassment, and violence it was designed to incite remain an everyday part of life, and an urgent human rights crisis for LGBT Ugandans. …

Kaggwa is also the executive director of the Support Initiative For People With Atypical Sex Development, a group that advocates for the rights of intersex people in Uganda. Kaggwa was born intersex, and raised as a girl. He “became very Christian, turned to God a lot to see if there would be a miracle of some sort, if I could wake up a girl.” Transitioning from that, and “shedding off that false image,” says Kaggwa, was “painful, painful in the sense that it made me lost in a way, but also painful in terms of social perceptions. I had to explain every day what was happening.”

Twenty years later, at age 40, Kaggwa is an advocate for sexual minorities. “When it comes to gay people, I may not be gay,” says Kaggwa, “but I understand very well what it means, the courage and the audacity it takes for you to say this is who I am in an environment that says you mustn’t be that.”…

Editorial comment:

JULIUS Kanggwa’s Support Initiative For People With Atypical Sex Development is the Ugandan affiliate of OII – Organisation Internationale des Intersexués.

Intersex people in Uganda are just as likely to be falsely branded as gay or homosexual and then slated for murder as non-intersex LGBT Ugandans.

We believe that homophobia motivates the oppression and persecution of intersex worldwide even when we may not actually be gay or homosexual.

RD Magazine: The US Religious Right and the LGBT Crisis In Uganda