PHOTOS: We Are Here: LGBTI in Uganda

American-born gay photographer D. David Robinson collected portraits and first-person accounts from lesbian, gay, transgender, and intersex Ugandans, then turned to The Advocate to offer these brave activists a forum to elevate their stories in their own words.

BY SUNNIVIE BRYDUM

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Photos by D. David Robinson © 2013, for use by The Advocate with this article only. All Rights Reserved. Subjects have approved use of images contained herein.

Despite taking a month-long break for the holiday on December 14, Uganda’s Parliament will once again consider the “Anti-Homosexuality Bill” when it reconvenes in 2013.

As it stands, the so-called Kill The Gays bill would prescribe the death penalty for LGBT Ugandans, “repeat offenders,” anyone who has same-sex relations with a minor, with someone who is mentally handicapped, or under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The bill demands long prison terms for those spared capital punishment, and requires friends, family, and neighbors to report any “known homosexuals” to authorities or face jail time themselves. 

But despite potential passage of the Kill The Gays bill and a hostile environment stoked to an ideological inferno by American Evangelicals proselytizing in Eastern Africa, Ugandan LGBTI people have a simple message: We are here. We are Ugandan. We will not be silenced. 

Click the header link above to read the full article and view the photos.