Isolated, depressed and alone: Why for LGBT+ Ugandans, coronavirus lockdown has been ‘simply torture’

Ugandan police are using stay-home orders as an excuse to carry out homophobic raids on LGBT+ shelters, according to NGOs. And that’s just the start of the problems faced by the community during lockdown, as Samuel Okiror reports from Kampala

Access to health services and food relief is very hard in lockdown (AFP/Getty)

Keem Love Black has spent more than two months indoors in her home in a suburb of Kampala, Uganda’s capital. But while the coronavirus lockdown has been tough for everyone, few have been left more vulnerable and afraid than trans women like her, living with HIV.

Black is terrified of being outed as trans if she has to spend too long in close proximity with her neighbours, or as HIV positive if she receives testing for Covid-19. As a commercial sex worker, either outcome could threaten her safety in the conservative East African country where the lockdown has heightened existing stigma, discrimination and violence towards LGBT+ people.

“Being home the whole day, every day is torture,” Black tells The Independent. “I have been exposed to my neighbours. People used to see me on social media but since the lockdown everyone is home.