Police in Uganda Raid HIV Nonprofit that Served Gays

Police in the Ugandan capital of Kampala raided the office of a U.S.-funded AIDS program last week in what appeared to be the first official action to enforce the country’s draconian new law against gay sex acts, reports the Associated Press.

The Makerere University Walter Reed Project was targeted for “training youths in homosexuality,” a spokesman for Uganda’s government said on Twitter Friday. The project, a collaboration between the Ugandan university and the U.S. Military HIV Research Program, offers HIV prevention and treatment services and is known to have gay clients.

The project said in a statement that it was suspending its activities in Uganda following the arrest and brief detention of a Ugandan staff member. The country’s president, Yoweri Museveni, approved legislation in February that allows life imprisonment for people convicted of having gay sex and a seven-year jail term for “attempted homosexuality.”