Mental health challenges of being gay in Uganda

As part of its campaign, “This is my story, I am still human”, the Universal Coalition of Affirming Africans (UCAA) Uganda has launched this interview with Godius, a human rights defender and openly gay person from Uganda. In the interview, he openly speaks about his battle with mental health issues to the extent that he had three suicidal attempts in his early 20s. This was because his parents, church, siblings and the society made him believe that who he was as a gay man is ridiculous, unbearable and un acceptable in church, in the society and anywhere. Drawing from his own experience, he calls for greater attention to the mental health challenges of members of the LGBTIQ community, and calls upon the church to be supporting:

Even churches, instead of empowering you and helping you to accept the way you are, they are preaching against us, putting pressure on you. The more you go to church, hoping to return as a better version of yourself, you come back weaker, more depressed. ... But I pray to the God I know, he knows why he created me, and I believe that God has a plan for me.

Please watch the video to learn from his moving story: