Kasha N. Jacqueline talks about her experience as a lesbian and LGBTI activist in Uganda. Founder of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), an organization that offers refuge to the persecuted LGBTI community, Kasha describes the horrifying witch hunt presently occurring in her country - a movement that threatens anyone labeled as a homosexual with imprisonment, exile, or death. One year after her talk in Oslo, Jacqueline won the prestigious Martin Ennals Award for human rights defenders. She is the first gay rights activist to receive the prize.

About

Kasha Jacqueline is the founder and director of Freedom and Roam Uganda (FARUG), the only exclusively lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and intersexual organization in Uganda. FARUG strives for the attainment of full equal rights and the eradication of all forms of discrimination based on sexual orientation. Jacqueline and others established the group as a platform for both socializing and political activism in an intolerant environment.

FARUG’s work includes an effort to stop the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009 from passing in the Ugandan Parliament. The bill criminalizes homosexuality (threatening those found “guilty" with severe punishments, including the death penalty) and compels anyone suspecting homosexual conduct to notify the authorities or face three years in prison. FARUG, based in Kampala, Uganda, lobbied nationally, regionally, and internationally, partnering with human rights, women’s rights, feminist, donor and health organizations to spread awareness about the adverse effects and implications of the Bill. On May 13, 2011, the Ugandan parliament failed to vote on the bill before the close of the session because of overwhelming international pressure, meaning the bill will have to wait until the next Parliament.