A gay Uganda man who was pulled from his home and beaten by an angry mob in 2014 details the horrific experience in a new report by Reuters, which exposes the humiliating and dangerous anal probes gays in the country are subjected to when doctors are tasked with “proving” their homosexuality.
Jackson Mukasa, 21, told Reuters he was terrified when he was woken by an angry, venomous mob banging on his door and yelling, “the homos are in there!”
“We opened the door, and there were police and people everywhere,” said Mukasa.
“The local councilman was there, yelling ’Out with the homos! You are scaring people in the area.’ I still have scars from the beatings that followed.”
Mukasa said that he and a male friend were taken in for questioning, “beaten again, [and] forced to admit to homosexuality.”
The two men were taken to a “clinic” where, for reasons that still aren’t clear to anyone, doctors inserted a machine into his rectum in order to “prove” that he is gay.
“It is so painful. It hurts so much, and there is blood,” said Mukasa.
He addded: “I have lost my job because of the case. People know who I am, I can’t leave my house. I cannot get a taxi, I cannot get a job, all because of the case.”
Though government officials refute Mukasa’s claims, Reuters reports that Uganda is one of eight countries globally that has a history of using anal probes to “prove” homosexuality.
But what’s more troubling, according to Uganda lawyer Nicholas Opiyo, is that the government is using the HIV and AIDS Prevention and Control Act to illegally justify the dangerous procedure.
“The examinations aren’t used as evidence, they are used as a tool to dehumanize and stigmatize,” he said.
Opiyo is currently preparing a case to challenge the barbaric practice in Uganda’s constitutional court.
“If the court declares the practice unconstitutional, the examinations will be unlawful, meaning anyone engaged in performing the examinations could be sued,” he said.
“Anal examinations are a form of torture, a violation of the Ugandan Constitution, the African Charter, and international human rights. We want them banned.”
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