Just weeks after a Ugandan constitutional court rejected their ‘anti-gay’ law, the country has held its first Pride rally.
The rally held Saturday in Entebbe, 35km from the capital Kampala, had police permission under and was described as an”invitation-only Uganda Pride” event.
In a report in The Guardian Sandra Ntebi, the organizer of the event said, “This event is to bring us together. Everyone was in hiding before because of the anti-homosexuality law. It is a happy day for all of us, getting together.”
Amid music, dancing and laughter, activists gathered in a park on the shores of Lake Victoria, close to the country’s presidential palace. “Some Ugandans are gay. Get over it,” read one sticker a man had pasted onto his face.
Ugandan deputy attorney-general Fred Ruhinda said that government lawyers had lodged an appeal against the ruling at the supreme court, the country’s highest court, reported The Guardian.
“We are unsatisfied with the court ruling,” he said. “The law was not intended to victimize gay people, it was for the common good.”
Homosexuality remains illegal in Uganda, one of the world’s least gay-friendly countries, and LGBT Ugandans have no legal protections.
