David Andrew Lukanga
Uganda

I’m 31 years old, a Ugandan and a Protestant, born on May 6, 1985. My father is dead, and my mother is still alive. I am the second born in a family of five. I started school in 1990 at St. Andrew’s Boy’s School. I went to a coed high school at St. John’s, and I attained an advanced certificate of education.

My father was a church priest, and my mum was a teacher. I grew up as a God-fearing child. My father always wanted me to focus on education and dreamed that one of his children would carry on his profession. 

At my primary school, I met Ben. It was a boy’s school, and we used to sleep in the same bed. I loved him with all of my feelings, but we were young, and we never spoke about sex. As we got older, we started a sexual relationship, but I was also attracted to girls in my co-ed high school. 

Despite this, Ben and I remained very close to each other. The other students at our high school started spreading rumors that Ben and I were in a love relationship. We could not admit it because we knew we would be kicked out of school and face imprisonment, as being gay is against the law in Uganda. I also feared disappointing my parents.

Because of this pressure, I was forced to find a girlfriend. I began a relationship with a girl, and I truly loved her. After a year, she got pregnant and was unable to continue her education. Her family sat together with my parents, and they agreed that we should marry. We married and had three children over the years, but I still would go meet Ben for love.

I attended the Nsamizi Institute of Social Development and received a diploma in social work with certificates in computing and counseling in 2007. In 2008, I left for the United Kingdom to study until 2010 when I came home to see my family. I also began to see Ben again. Together, we started a pig farming project to promote opportunities for the youth, and we called it Nkobazambogo, which means ‘fighting for our future.’ We started with twenty pigs, and each year the number of pigs doubled, increasing our sales of pork products.

Ben and I decided to find people willing to come and join our team to increase our productivity. Among all the people who applied, we happened to recruit a gay couple, although we didn’t know then that they were gay. After a few months, we started hearing rumors from many different people in the community that these two men were well known as homosexuals. Ben and I were warned by several individuals to fire them or else we would be targets of violence. 

The community hated us for what they felt was “spoiling the next generation” by hiring homosexuals to work with the youth. The pig farm was now viewed as a curse to the entire community. The community still didn’t know that Ben and I were gay, as we did everything possible to hide it. I stayed with my wife and children in order to survive.

I was facing the new anti-gay legislation in Uganda, which criminalized all homosexual acts. It was becoming so dangerous for me that I decided to flee to South Sudan. A month after I left, my daughter Nakalema was abducted, and I was forced to pay a great deal of money to get her back. Soon after I returned to Uganda, the police arrested both Ben and me, and we were taken to different police stations.

In the month of June in 2014, my partner Ben organized a birthday party for me at a pub well-known for gay and lesbian patrons. That night, the club was full of gay youth playing music and dancing. Unfortunately, at around 3 a.m. the police surrounded the club, and almost thirty men were arrested that night. Ben was kicked, beaten, thrown in a police truck, and driven away. 

I was handcuffed and arrested again on suspicion of being a homosexual. I was detained for three days and the police started torturing me, as they believed that torture could stop homosexual desires. They beat me twice a day with sticks, fed me poorly, and dipped in a pool of icy cold water every morning. One day I was beaten with a broken bottle on my head. My wounds bled, but I wasn’t given any medical care. There is a lot of corruption among the police in Uganda, so I paid a bribe and was finally released from prison. I went to the hospital for treatment, but I felt like I would not survive much longer.

This was the first time my wife heard about me being a homosexual. Since my family was highly respected in our community, they said that they were ashamed of me, and they turned against me as their son. I explained to my wife how this came to be. I asked her for forgiveness and promised not to do it again. However, since being gay is who I am, my desires made me look for Ben. 

When I came back to the village, rumors about my relationship with Ben had spread throughout my entire community. People wanted to kill me for being a homosexual. They believed in mob justice. Even though my wife was pregnant again, she was attacked, too. In spite of this violence, I continued with my pig farm because I had invested too much money to just let it close down.

In the month of May in 2015, some people from my community invaded my home and knocked down my wife, who was holding our five-month-old baby. Then they went to our farm office, poisoned all the pigs, and burned the office down, including our computers. We lost everything; it was all destroyed. 

After this happened, my family ignored me completely. I lost my self-esteem and felt inferior. All I could do to save my life was go into hiding ten miles away from my home. There, I met an old friend who told me about a medical trip to America. I decided to apply in order to leave Uganda, and I was accepted to come to a conference in the United States. I used every bit of money I had saved in order to escape from Uganda.

Due to the fear of losing my life because of the laws and attitudes against homosexuality in Uganda, I have applied for asylum in the United States. If I went back home, I would likely be put in prison for life or killed simply for being gay. 

President Museveni of Uganda signed a law that not only bans homosexual acts, but also compels citizens to report suspected homosexual activities to the police. This law has triggered increased levels of prejudice and violence towards the gay community, so I cannot go home. 

I want to stay in America in order to save my life and the lives of my family members back in Uganda. If I can stay here and become a U.S. citizen, I will give a great deal back to the people in this country.