Pride and Prejudice

The building on the outskirts of Kampala that houses Icebreakers Uganda, a non-profit working for sexual minorities, was bustling with activity when I visited in July last year. Programme managers sat hunched over their laptops writing grant applications. A group meeting was in progress in the living-room-turned-meeting-room. Other activists slouched on the red couch at the entrance, waiting for the next meeting.

For an uninformed local seeing it from the outside, the building would seem as unremarkable as any other. But behind the jet-black, unmarked iron gates were the offices of at least four queer-rights organisations. They included Kampala’s first LGBTQ+ clinic, where a doctor visited thrice a week for consultation, as well as a safe house for at-risk queer Ugandans. Other