Clare Byarugaba, left, with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Aug. 13, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Byarugaba’s X account)
Pope Francis met with a Ugandan LGBTQ+ activist at the Vatican Aug. 13.
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, who also founded PFLAG Uganda, 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.
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