Gays In Uganda Attempting Suicide Over Anti-Gay Law – One 17 Year Old Just Died

In February, President Yoweri Museveni signed into law Uganda‘s infamous “Jail the Gays” bill, which mandates sentences up to life in prison for being gay, or even for supporting LGBT people.

Days later, CNN’s Christiane Amanpour spoke with a top LGBT activist in Uganda, Pepe Julian Onziema, who told her that gay people in Uganda are committing suicide over the law, known as the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHB), formerly known as the “Kill the Gays” bill. He tells her in the video, below, that feel they would rather die by their own hand than be subjected to government persecution.

LOOK: Uganda: Gays Arrested For Having Sex, Evicted From Their Homes For Being Gay

Onziema says that there have been “cases of attempted mob justice,” where mobs attack people believed or perceived to be LGBTQ. “People are afraid of losing their lives,” Onziema told Amanpour. He says that others “have fled the country.” And he adds that people are ending their activism because they “are really afraid about losing their lives, losing their families, ” and “don’t want to get into trouble.”

People are saying, “I’m not going to live to see this country kill me,” Onziema told Amanpour, “so I’d rather take my life.”

Sadly, one 17-year old boy who attempted suicide over the anti-gay law, just died on Thursday, Gay Star news reports.

The young man, who we will call Denis, overdosed on pills and swallowed rat poison around a month ago.

For the past few weeks, he showed little signs of recovery as he slipped in and out of consciousness. He also lost his ability to speak.

Last Thursday (3 April), Denis was pronounced dead. He was just 17 years old.

“It’s like standing by the roadside and being pushed in front of a speeding car,” Onziema told Gay Star News. “That is what the president has done to us.”

Watch this CNN video:

//www.youtube.com/embed/f_yZC9eN424

Image: President Yuweri Museveni of Uganda, speaking at the London Summit on Family Planning, 11th July 2012. Photo by Russell Watkins/Department for International Development via Flickr.

Previously:

John Kerry Sending Scientists To Help Ugandan President Reconsider Homosexuality

Scott Lively And Rick Warren’s PR Campaign To Whitewash The Right’s Anti-Gay Uganda History

Uganda Tabloid Publishes ’200 Top Homos’ List Day After Life-In-Prison For Gays Becomes Law