Seeking Medical Care in Uganda as LGBTQ+

 

His Benevolence the President has declared that no homosexual will be arrested seeking medical care in the country.

Weird country Uganda. Can you imagine the President of a country in 2023 seeking to reassure the citizenry that his government was not so cruel as to force a part of the country from health care, threatening arrest?

Weird indeed.

So, what are we kuchus supposed to do? Clap our  hands and thank our jailor that he is not so bad…
Seriously. That is what he is expecting.

Apart from the statement, ask yourself, why is he trying to stress it? Because the Americans who fund most of the HIV programs in the country are not happy about that. He believes that the only problem is that they fear gay Ugandans will be arrested from being outed at the health care facilities.

So, he is benevolent in his care.

What does the law that he signed say? What does the text of the law state, because it is very apparent that he might have not read it before he signed it.

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14.   Duty to report acts of homosexuality

(1) A person who knows or has reasonable suspicion that a person has committed or intends to commit the offence of homosexuality or any other offence under this Act, shall report the matter to police for appropriate action.

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Think you that you can safely out yourself to the health care worker in the most homophobic country in the world? With that above as the law?

And, yes. Health Care workers in Uganda are truly homophobic. This is their environment. They are not angels.

Matter of fact, only the Law Bar complained and was excluded from the reporting mandate. And, the parliamentarians were very clear that they thought this an important part of the law. They even reminded everyone that the one who reported the small detail about one’s sexuality was due to be protected by the law.

 

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