LGBTQ rights in Uganda

Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in Uganda face severe challenges and discrimination not experienced by non-LGBTQ people. Uganda has one of the world's harshest laws for LGBTQ+ people. Same-sex sexual activity is illegal for both men and women in Uganda. The British Empire introduced the original laws criminalizing homosexual acts when Uganda became a British protectorate; these laws have been retained since the country gained its independence in 1962. Male same-sex sexual activity was understood to be present and largely unremarkable in many contexts in precolonial Ugandan society.

Although largely unenforced for decades, attempts to reinvigorate the application of anti-homosexuality laws has been ongoing since the 1990s. In the decades since, anti-gay rhetoric and efforts to introduce harsher laws have gained momentum, culminating in the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, which prescribes up to twenty years in prison for "promotion of homosexuality", life imprisonment for "homosexual acts", and the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality". This Act came into force in 2023, making Uganda the only Christian-majority country to punish some types of consensual same-sex acts with the death penalty. Although there are no recorded executions in Uganda since 2005, and Uganda is considered a de facto abolitionist after a 2009 Ugandan Supreme Court ruling declaring mandatory death sentences were unconstitutional. A similar law had been passed in 2013, but was annulled on technical grounds in 2014. Same-sex marriage has been constitutionally banned since 2005. Some foreign governments and international organisations have rescinded funding to Uganda due to its extreme anti-LGBTQ legislation.

LGBTQ people face severe discrimination in Uganda, actively incited by conservative political, religious and community leaders, with the upsurge in such activism since the 1990s encouraged or influenced by foreign anti-LGBTQ campaigners. Violent attacks and harassment against LGBTQ people are common, often performed or incited by state officials.