A Ugandan court has dropped a case against the first man in the country to be prosecuted for “aggravated homosexuality,” a charge that carries the death penalty under Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act.
The defendant, who was 20 years old at the time of his arrest on August 15, 2023, was allegedly discovered by police around midnight with a 41-year-old man at Soroti Sports Ground in eastern Uganda. Both men were arrested, taken to Soroti Central Police Station, and accused of engaging in “unlawful sexual intercourse,” an allegation the 20-year-old denied. Police claimed they caught the two men half-naked.
Later that day, police released the 41-year-old, claiming he was unable to consent to sexual activity due to his “mental status.” A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution said the man was “living with a disability,” though the 20-year-old’s lawyers told Amnesty International that police provided no evidence to support that claim.
Lawyers for the 20-year-old said police conducted anal examinations on the alleged “victim” while he was in custody — a practice used in some African and Asian countries to purportedly “prove” same-sex conduct, despite being based on junk science.
The 20-year-old was held in police custody until August 18, when he was taken to Soroti Chief Magistrates Court and remanded to prison. He was subsequently charged with “aggravated homosexuality,” beginning a legal process that would stretch on for more than two years. Prosecutors later amended the indictment, charging him with “carnal knowledge against the order of nature,” an offense punishable by life imprisonment under Uganda’s penal code.
On February 2, a magistrate discontinued the case after finding “that the accused is of unsound mind after a long detention on remand,” the man’s lawyer, Douglas Mawadri, told Reuters. The ruling was delivered orally in court, with a written decision to be issued at a later date.
A spokesperson for Uganda’s judiciary declined comment when approached by Reuters.
Ugandan LGBTQ activist Richard Lusimbo told Agence France-Presse that the dismissal was a “major breakthrough which should have come out earlier,” adding that “detaining someone for over a year without trial is injustice at its worst.”
A federal judge who routinely sides with conservative activists has upheld West Texas A&M University’s ban on campus drag performances, ignoring long-standing precedent and rejecting First Amendment arguments for why the prohibition should be overturned.
West Texas A&M University imposed the ban in 2023, when University President Walter Wendler barred Spectrum WT, the college's LGBTQ student organization, from hosting a campus drag show to raise money for The Trevor Project, the nation's leading LGBTQ suicide prevention organization.
Wendler blocked the show on the grounds that drag is "misogynistic" and mocks women, comparing the art form to blackface. He also maintained there is no such thing as a "harmless drag show," arguing that performers adopt exaggerated gender expressions through makeup, clothing, and prosthetics that stereotype and insult women.
A Russian man has been fined for posting a photo of the iconic rock band Queen dressed in drag on social media, with authorities accusing him of "destroying family values" and violating Russia's law banning the dissemination of so-called "LGBT propaganda."
David Gevondyan posted the offending photo -- showing members of the band dressed in women's clothing and posing by a stairwell in a femininely decorated home during the filming of the music video for the song "I Want to Break Free" -- to VKontakte (VK), Russia's equivalent of Facebook.
A gay couple who fled Iran and sought asylum in the United States are now facing deportation back to their home country, where they could be executed under Iran’s laws criminalizing homosexuality.
The men -- in their late 30s and early 40s -- were initially part of a group of more than 40 Iranian nationals, including Christians fleeing religious persecution, who were scheduled to be deported on a flight departing Arizona’s Mesa Gateway Airport on Sunday, January 25.
Rebekah Wolf, an attorney with the American Immigration Council, which represents the couple, said her clients would likely face public execution if returned to Iran.
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