The law and the court systems in Uganda have become a political tool. First of all, we must recognize that, in large part, the problem of the LGBTI community is also a political problem, because the issue of the LGBTI community has been used by politicians in moments of political convenience to attack their opponents and characterize them as being funded by foreign LGBTI groups. The intention is to drive the population against them. This has also happened to allies and allied organizations.
In our case, part of the reason we were suspended and closed by the government of Uganda in 2021 was that we were working with the LGBTI community. The accusations against us for money laundering came because the funding was coming from an American LGBTI funding organization called the American Jewish World Service.
The law and the court systems, which are supposed to be tools of protection, have become tools of punishment and persecution against the LGBTI community. I've appeared in many cases in which judges and magistrates quoted the Bible, not the law, in condemning LGBTI folks to imprisonment or detention.
In so many instances, the use of the small LGBTI minority in Uganda as a political tool has become commonplace. Just two days ago, the speaker of the national assembly, who was the speaker of the house and who championed the passing of the law, was using the LGBTI issue to attack her opponents on a campaign platform. This issue has been weaponized and used in so many other ways, much to the detriment of the country's LGBTI community.
If I may seek your indulgence to make a small comment on the previous question on numbers, I think Uganda is not about just the numbers—the numbers might be small—but about what it means for the region. We are seeing the spread of anti-LGBTI laws across the region, starting from Uganda. Whether it works or fails in Uganda will determine how far this spreads in the region. We must treat Uganda as a test case to make the point that LGBTI folks have allies and can be protected, rather than focus on the numbers of LGBTI folks in Uganda, which are difficult to know. People are closeted. So many people come to me for legal representation who are in heterosexual relationships but are maintaining quiet gay relationships. You can't even know the number because nobody counts them, and people are afraid to come out.