Uganda Gay Activist Wins Human Rights Award

The Martin Ennals Award for Human Rights Defenders has been bestowed on a Ugandan LGBT rights activist who has faced myriad threats for her advocacy work.

BBC News reports that Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera, founder and executive director of Freedom and Roam Uganda, was given the prestigious award Tuesday by the 10 human rights organizations that make up the award’s jury.

"[Nabagesera] is an exceptional woman of a rare courage, fighting under death threat for human dignity and the rights of homosexuals and marginalized people in Africa," jury chairman Hans Thoolen said.

Nabagesera’s fellow Ugandan LGBT rights advocate David Kato was murdered in the country in January. She was also targeted by a tabloid newspaper in a 2010 article with the headline “100 Pictures of Uganda’s Top Homos Leak.”

Read the BBC article here and watch her talk about her experience of being a lesbian in Uganda below: