In the weeks following President Trump, an executive decree dismantles the American agency for international development, Andrea Minaj Casablanca’s phone was flooded with desperate Pleidoyers.
Advisor who works with non -profit organizations aimed at members of the LGBTQ population assimilated in Uganda, she responded to urgent requests for people looking for HIV drugs, therapy and shelter sessions following Mr. Trump’s executive decree. Ms. Casablanca responded to these calls while attacking her own crisis: being dismissed from a job that was funded by USAID
“Our whole world has been upset,” said Casablanca, a 25-year-old transgender woman in recent afternoon in Kampala, the capital. “Everyone is afraid of the future.”
The inhabitants of the LGBTQ in Uganda have undergone intensifying repression in this African nation in the East Conservative in recent years. President Yoweri Museveni signed a law in 2023 which calls for life imprisonment for anyone who commits homosexual relations in Uganda and up to a prison decade for anyone who tries.
Now, activists say that the USAID cuts have endangered them even more, with sub-financed shelters, hundreds of unemployed people and many others confronted with discrimination and violence. Vital medical supplies remain rare, while members of LGBTQ groups say they are feeling more and more depressed or suicidal.
The law also authorizes the death penalty for any person found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality”, a radical term defined as acts of homosexual relations with minors or disabled people. Mr. Museveni and his government affirmed that homosexuality is a Western phenomenon and that the law protects children and defends the sacred nature of the family.
“This is a calculation,” said Richard Lusimbo, founder and director general of the Uganda population consortium, a non -profit organization promoting LGBTQ rights and health.
“With these missing programs, I fear that our communities will be pushed back in disarray and deactivation,” he added. “It’s heartbreaking.”
Muhoozi Kainerugaba, the son of Mr. Museveni and the Ugandan army chief, exhorted President Trump to restore help to people infected with HIV, adding: “Our people will be grateful.”
The United States to propose More than $ 970 million per year in development as well as humanitarian and security aid in Uganda. In 2023, around $ 440 million was spent on health programs, followed by emergency services, agriculture and education services, According to US government data.
For years, the United States has supported LGBTQ groups in Uganda thanks to initiatives funded by USAID, providing treatment against HIV, legal training and resources for activism. Previous American governments sentenced human rights violations against the Gays of the Ugandans, imposing trade and travel restrictions in response.
Only a few days after Mr. Trump took office in January, his administration announced that she interrupted all foreign aid because she had carried out an expenditure audit of 90 days. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has issued an exemption To continue to finance vital medication and medical services, including for the care and treatment of HIV and tuberculosis.
But Exemption excludes Programs that have favored diversity, equity and inclusion. This meant that LGBTQ people were unable to receive medication to protect them from HIV infections. Several groups for defense of the rights of Ugandan homosexuals said that, during the audit, they were informed that their projects had been permanently interrupted because they promoted diversity, equity and inclusion.
At the end of February, the Trump administration announced that it had done an examination of all American foreign aid and reduced 90% of USAID programs, including those that provided vital medicines.
The rapid loss of help from the United States has left many terrified Gays Ugandan. “It’s like running from one fire to another fire,” said Agy HRD, executive director of Africa Queer Network, who works on LGBTQ rights in more than a dozen African countries.
Ms. HRD, who vigorously campaigned against the anti-homosexuality law in Uganda, said that she had been attacked and beaten in the country last year. With sudden financing cuts, she fears that many homosexuals, especially in rural areas, become sick or meet violence and turn nowhere so that security or support.
“I haven’t slept well for weeks,” she said. “We have a great battle in front of us.”
An informal survey of 127 non -profit organizations dealing with LGBTQ questions and other risk groups carried out by Uganda Key Consortium Populations, the organization of Mr. Lusimbo, showed that 97% of them had lost almost all their budgets following the reductions of the USAID. Mr. Lusimbo said that he had to let most of his staff leave in the last month.
The organizations began to distribute the few resources they have left and to count on volunteers to maintain essential services, such as finding shelters or delivering test kits. Brant Luswata, the executive director of Icebreakers Uganda, an organization of homosexual rights, said that the services had been eliminated, his group had been invited to return binders and chairs bought with American taxes.
Activists have said that some LGBTQ clinics are now billing services that were previously free, such as HIV screening. The mental health services have been reduced or completely cut, they said. There are also fears that the steep suspension of aid cancels the years of progress in teaching in Ugandans on safe sex or expose people living with HIV to fatal infections due to their weakened immunity.
“The infections did not take a break simply because there is a 90 -day exam,” said Lusimbo. “We live in a world village,” he added. “Everyone’s health is in danger.”
The conditions of the Ugandan LGBTQ are so perilous that shelters often move the locations frequently or move from individuals to avoid attacks or personal raids of the authorities. Now, some of these shelters are starting to close.
Since 2020, around three dozen shelters in secret places in Uganda have protected thousands of homosexuals from homeless and violence, according to John Grace, coordinator of the Ugandan minority shelters.
The shelters relied on intermediaries who have received American funding, including USAID and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But due to reductions in progressive funding and policy changes under the Trump administration, at least a dozen shelters have closed, said MX. Grace, which is non -binary.
Those who stay are in sub-effective and overcrowded and began to distance people, they said.
“It’s a total mess,” said MX. Grace, 32, whose family expelled them after their non -binary release a few years ago. “These shelters are a lifeline for so many people, and now they find it difficult to survive.”
For Ms. Casablanca, the advisor, the relentless flow of phone calls shows no sign of relaxation. Although she did not receive her monthly pay check from $ 40 funded by USAID, she chose to continue working as a volunteer.
Through Kampala and other Ugandan cities, she said that LGBTQ people are handing hands, fearing where to get medication, condoms, lubricants and tests. Some call tears, sharing their difficulties in fear and isolation, she said. Many, like her, are also worried about where their next pay check or how they will pay the rent.
To reach both ends, she said, she worked as a party decorator. “We have to survive this darkness,” she said.
