Pope Francis on Tuesday met with a Ugandan LGBTQ activist at the Vatican.Clare Byarugaba of Chapter Four Uganda posted to her X account a picture of her sitting next to Francis.
A video that she shared shows Juan Carlos Cruz — a gay Chilean man who is a survivor of clergy sex abuse and a member of a commission that advises Francis on protecting children from pedophile priests — introducing her to the pontiff.
Cruz is also a member of the GLAAD board of directors.Byarugaba said she was “honored to meet” Francis.
She added she briefed him on “the ruinous impact of Uganda’s two in a decade anti-LGBTIQ rights laws,” including the Anti-Homosexuality Act that President Yoweri Museveni signed in 2023, and “the gross human rights violations therein.”
“He reiterated discrimination is a sin and violence against LGBTIQ communities is unacceptable,” said Byarugaba.
The Washington Blade has reached out to Byarugaba for additional comment.Francis during a Jan. 24, 2023, interview with the Associated Press said homosexuality is not a crime and laws that criminalize it are “unjust.”
Francis a few days later reiterated these comments during a press conference on board his plane after it left South Sudan, a country that borders Uganda.Consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized in South Sudan.
“The criminalization of homosexuality is a problem that cannot be ignored,” Francis told reporters.
“Criminalizing people with homosexual tendencies is an injustice.”
Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act, among other things, contains a death penalty provision for “aggravated homosexuality.”
The U.S. after Museveni signed the law imposed visa restrictions on Ugandan officials and removed the country from a program that allows sub-Saharan African countries to trade duty-free with the U.S. The World Bank Group also announced the suspension of new loans to Uganda.
The Ugandan Constitutional Court on April 3 refused to “nullify the Anti-Homosexuality Act in its totality.”More than a dozen activists appealed the ruling to the country’s Court of Appeal. They filed a second appeal with the Supreme Court on July 11.
Angola, Botswana, Mauritius, and Seychelles are among the countries that have decriminalized consensual same-sex sexual relations over the last decade.The Namibian government last month appealed a ruling that struck down the country’s apartheid-era sodomy laws.
Burkina Faso’s military government on July 10 announced it plans to recriminalize consensual same-sex sexual relations in the nation.
