Thank you.
Chair of the committee and members, thank you for inviting Rainbow Railroad to deliver testimony on the situation of LGBTQI+ Ugandans.
I was born and raised in Uganda and spent many years working as an activist for LGBTQI+ rights. My work placed me in direct contact with the regressive systems, institutions and actors that shape LGBTQI+ persecution across the region. I also sit before you as someone who was forcibly displaced as a result of this persecution. Today, I am a proud Canadian with a strong commitment to the LGBTQI+ community in Uganda.
Rainbow Railroad operates globally at the intersection of forced displacement and LGBTQI+ persecution. Over the past three years, Uganda has become one of the most significant drivers of our increasing caseload. Since 2023, we have received over 3,000 requests for help from Uganda, including a 2,057% spike in March 2023, when the Anti-Homosexuality Act was introduced.
This is not an isolated reality. Uganda's crisis is part of a coordinated regional anti-LGBTQI+ movement mirrored in laws, rhetoric and enforcement practices emerging across East Africa. The impact on everyday life is profound. LGBTQI+ Ugandans report police intimidation, denial of legal protection, forced eviction, firing and barriers to health care.
To respond to this, Rainbow Railroad has built 15 partnerships with Ugandan organizations since March 2023, collectively supporting over 2,500 individuals with shelter, relocation, legal aid, medical care, basic needs and mental health assistance. For many, however, escape from Uganda is the only life-saving option, but this also leads directly to new risks.
In 2025, we tracked 162 Ugandans in Kenya and 123 in South Sudan. Alongside others dispersed across the region, these individuals often find themselves in environments where the same patterns of homophobia, transphobia and violence continue. In Kakuma refugee camp, Ugandans are frequently profiled as LGBTQI+, resulting in targeted violence. Many have spent as many as 10 years without documentation or a pathway to durable protection. In Nairobi, the absence of legal status forces individuals into homelessness, unsafe work and exploitative environments. Conditions in South Sudan's Gorom camp are similarly precarious and lack any LGBTQI+ competent protection.
These realities are echoed in our queer forced displacement initiative consultations, where refugees consistently identify three barriers: one, prolonged or stalled registration and refugee status determination processes; two, continued exposure to violence in camps and urban settings; three, lack of any credible pathway out. Many refugees describe their situation as being trapped between danger in the camps and danger at home. The challenge is not simply flight from Uganda, but a lack of access to protection pathways for LGBTQI+ persons across the region.
Canada has the tools to address these gaps in a targeted and effective way. Rainbow Railroad offers the following recommendations to the Government of Canada.
One, expand the government-assisted refugees partnership with Rainbow Railroad to include a dedicated allocation for Ugandan LGBTQI+ refugees in Kenya, South Sudan and neighbouring countries in the region.
Two, expand funding for Canada's LGBTQI+ international assistance program that sustains the queer forced displacement initiative, which recognizes LGBTQI+ forced displacement as a priority within international human rights programming.
Three, establish a standing rapid response mechanism for sudden anti-LGBTQI+ crackdowns across all Canadian missions.
I'm here in Canada because of the compassion of the Canadian government. The individuals currently stranded in camps and cities across East Africa need that compassion today. Canada's leadership, applied through existing mechanisms and informed by on-the-ground expertise, can create the pathways to protection that LGBTQI+ Ugandans need today.
I thank you.