not/Still

Photographer Jiro Ose explores the current status of LGBTQI+ rights in Uganda, documenting an intersection of recent contentious events in Ugandan politics: the November 2015 visit by Pope Francis, the fifth anniversary (January 2016) of David Kato’s murder, and the Ugandan general elections in February 2016. Based in Kampala, captures these scenes as well as the personal lives of members of the LGBTQI+ community, highlighting their courageous advocacy work in the face of growing homophobia.

The rights of individuals to choose whom they love and how they see and express themselves are codified in the privacy and free speech tenants of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international treaties. However, the history of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI+) communities in the United States and around the globe has long included severe violations of civil and political rights, as well as economic, social and cultural rights.

Decades of challenges to both judicial biases and social practices have in recent years culminated in significant changes. The 2015 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that state-level bans on same-sex marriage are unconstitutional provided significant advancement in marriage equality. In 2016, Colombia followed suit. In Argentina, a groundbreaking gender identity law passed in 2012 provided essential protections for transgender people. And in Uganda, the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act was invalidated by the Constitutional Court after the swift response of the international community.

However, these gains are only milestones on the work yet to be done. Violence perpetrated against LGBTQI+ community members in Iraq, Syria and other areas of North Africa and the Middle East is made more devastating by the impact of ongoing conflict that reduces options for support in already fragile situations. While Russia repealed its anti-homosexuality law in 1993, it did little to respond to public homophobia and increasingly frequent attacks against sexual minorities. Jamaica continues to uphold laws criminalizing homosexuality, as do many other countries around the world. In the U.S., the unraveling of the Supreme Court’s decision through the vast network of state laws will take decades of legal challenges on related rights. Protection for trans persons, both legally and culturally, remains highly fragile, as demonstrated by recent challenges to the right to self-identify gender in both Mississippi and North Carolina.

The journey to equality is taking place in both the courtrooms and living rooms of the world. There is much distance left to cover. This exhibit provides the opportunity to bring awareness to the many challenges still facing the LGBTQI+ community around the world.