{"id":5681,"date":"2016-09-17T13:12:07","date_gmt":"2016-09-17T07:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pahichan.com\/?p=5681"},"modified":"2016-09-17T13:12:07","modified_gmt":"2016-09-17T07:27:07","slug":"im-an-intersex-ugandan-life-has-never-felt-more-dangerous","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pahichan.com\/en\/im-an-intersex-ugandan-life-has-never-felt-more-dangerous\/","title":{"rendered":"I’m an intersex Ugandan\u2013life has never felt more dangerous"},"content":{"rendered":"

Julius Kaggwa (Pahichan) September 17 –\u00a0M<\/span><\/span>y name is Julius Kaggwa and I am 46. I was born in Uganda\u00a0and raised as a girl called Juliette.<\/p>\n

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But by 17, my period hadn\u2019t arrived, my voice had broken and I had started to grow facial hair. What I didn\u2019t know then was that I wasn\u2019t suffering from a mysterious disease \u2013 I was a normal human with a simple medical condition.<\/p>\n

I was born intersex, with both male and female genitalia. I later went through surgery to close my vagina, and I now live in a happy heterosexual marriage.<\/p>\n

Intersex is the \u201ci\u201d in LGBTI, and though we stand with the gay community in Uganda, the association has become a double-edged sword for us.<\/p>\n

Politically we are considered the same, and we are subject to the same dangers and the same level of harassment. But while the community offers us a place of relative safety, it is also oblivious to our specific needs.<\/p>\n

Times have never been harder for LGBTI activists in Uganda. In February last year, President Yoweri Museveni signed a law that not only outlawed homosexual acts, but also compelled citizens to report<\/a> suspected homosexual activity to the police, triggering increased levels of prejudice, violence<\/a> and discrimination against the gay community.<\/p>\n

This year, a police raid on a gay pride march in August<\/a> was one of the worst things we\u2019ve experienced for months, and people from our community around the country have been telling us it\u2019s increasingly hard to find a safe space to seek medical or psychological support.<\/p>\n

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\"Kaggwa<\/picture><\/div>\n
Julius Kaggwa visiting the Guardian. Photograph: Maeve Shearlaw<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

I became an activist after helping a young intersex boy, who was due to appear on the radio to try to raise money to have his breasts surgically removed. He was the first person ever to look at me with eyes that said \u201cyou can help me\u201d.<\/p>\n

I was concerned for him because people have so many questions. \u201cHow many sexual parts do you have,\u201d people ask. \u201cWhich one works?\u201d For young people it can be particularly traumatising. You\u2019re taught growing up as an intersex person in Uganda that your body is no longer your property. It is to be abused, examined and tested against your will.<\/p>\n

I am now in the public eye and I have no regrets. Yes I feel more exposed, more of a target, but I also have links with activists and groups outside Uganda that I can call if someone threatens me.<\/p>\n

I have suffered harassment throughout my life, including from my in-laws from my first marriage. They became very abusive, both verbally and physically. At one point my sister\u2019s husband tried to rape me \u2013 it\u2019s curious type of \u201ccure\u201d also inflicted on lesbians to \u201ccorrect them\u201d.<\/p>\n

Ugandans are the most hospitable people I\u2019ve ever met, but I blame the hatred we face on the US church groups who have been pushing an agenda against us. They say we are \u201cagainst God\u201d. Others say that we are being paid by western LGBTI groups to destroy the social fabric of Uganda and corrupt children.<\/p>\n

I have always been a staunch Christian but lately it has been a challenge to find acceptance in my own church. I still have allies, but increasingly they say I am treading a \u201cslippery path\u201d by standing up for the gay community.<\/p>\n

The church doesn\u2019t have a problem with intersex, nor does the government really, they just don\u2019t understand what it means. They think it\u2019s a disease or a curse. We also don\u2019t have any reliable figures for how many people are intersex, because stigma stops people revealing themselves. Across the country people are misinformed, which is what we need to fight.<\/p>\n