In February, Wendy and Diana were arrested under Uganda’s anti-homosexuality law, accused of kissing in public.
The prosecutions have been dropped, but fear remains intact. This Friday, July 17, the Ugandan prosecutor’s office confirmed the dropping of the criminal proceedings against two women arrested last February in Arua, in the north of the East African country, for kissing in public. “I confirm that the case has been dropped“, said to Agence France-Presse (AFP) the deputy spokesperson for the prosecutor’s office, Irene Nakimbugwe, without providing any detailed explanation on the reasons for this reversal.
It all started with a neighborhood complaint on February 18, in a district of Arua where Wendy F. and Diana D., aged 21 and 22, live. According to the local police spokesperson, cited by the AFP, “the neighbors contacted the police, complaining that the two women were engaging in homosexuality and had been seen kissing in public”. The accusers reportedly even took photos to pass on to investigators. Detained, the two suspects remained imprisoned for several weeks before being released on bail.
Institutionalized homophobia in Uganda
The Ugandan anti-homosexuality law, passed in 2023, ranks among the harshest anti-LGBT legislations in the world. It punishes homosexual acts with life imprisonment and establishes a crime of “aggravated homosexuality,” punishable by the death penalty. The “promotion” of homosexuality is also criminalized, as is renting housing to a same-sex couple or failing to report a person who is homosexual in one’s circle.
In a report published in May 2025, Human Rights Watch notes that the law has “institutionalized homophobia” and has placed the Ugandan LGBT community in “a climate of fear“. HRAPF, the human rights promotion forum in Uganda, had recorded 55 arrests under the act in the year following its promulgation. Volker Türk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, speaks of 600 human rights violations related to sexual orientation or gender identity since the law’s adoption.
In this context, the dropping of the lesbian-phobic charges against the two Arua women was welcomed with relief but with caveats. Frank Mugisha, a Ugandan human rights lawyer, recalls that “they should never have been arrested, detained or subjected to criminal proceedings for a presumed consensual act because kissing is not a crime, and no one should be persecuted for what they are or for whom they love“. And he again advocates for the repeal of the text. Yet in this predominantly Christian and conservative country, the hardening of the anti-homosexuality law has been widely supported by public opinion.
