Ugandan LGBTQ Youth Counselor Arrested For ‘Recruiting’ Youths Into Gay Life

KAMPALA, UGANDA -- A Ugandan LGBTQ Youth Counselor was arrested Monday by Ugandan law enforcement charged under laws which prohibit unnatural carnal acts — a definition which is widely understood to include homosexuality and ‘recruiting youth into homosexuality.’

Joseph Kaweesi, executive director and co-founder of the LGBTQ group Youth on Rock Foundation based in the Ugandan capital, was taken in custody Monday afternoon and is being held at the Kawempe police station.

LGBTQ equality activists are pointing out that while current Ugandan law calls for criminal penalization of homosexual acts including “carnal knowledge or defilement" there are no statues addressing “recruitment” of homosexuals.

Both male and female homosexual activity is illegal in Uganda - under its penal code ‘carnal knowledge against the order of nature’ between two males carries a potential penalty of life imprisonment. 

Prominent South African civil rights attorney and journalist Melanie Nathan- writing on her blogsite- said that she thought Kaweesi's arrest by police was a preemptive strike prior to passage of the pending "Kill The Gays" bill which was introduced into the Ugandan Parliament and has yet to pass.

"The arrest may be political as anti-gay catalysts for the Bill try and drum up more support for its passage. 

While we all know such is impossible to do, the [bill] seeks to make the misnomer a crime. 

If Kaweesi’s charges are pursued the facts may be difficult to prove and certainly the aspect of “recruitment” could be thrown out by a competent court of law."

This past November, Rebecca Alitwala Kadaga, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, promised passage of a revised anti-homosexuality bill, providing for harsher penalties against suspected LGBT people and anyone who fails to report them to authorities, including long-term imprisonment and the death penalty for what the law terms ‘repeat offenders’.

The anti-homosexuality bill is due to be put to the vote when Parliament reconvenes in its next session sometime later this month.