Illustration by Wynona Mutisi WAKISO, UGANDA — Livingstone remembers his first and only sexual encounter with a man. It was when he was in prison in 2016, serving one year for insulting a police officer. Three months into his incarceration, an inmate who had been kind to him asked for sex, says Livingstone, who asked to be identified only by his first name out of fear of persecution.
It was the longest he’d ever gone without sex so he agreed. “I just did it with him. I needed some release,” he says, his voice getting hard as he frowns and looks away.
Four months later, Livingstone, who had tested negative for HIV when he was imprisoned seven months earlier, tested positive for the virus that causes AIDS. He is one of a number of people in Uganda’s prisons who have tested positive for HIV. According to government data, HIV rates in Uganda’s prisons more than double the national average, despite ongoing efforts to battle spread of the virus in the country.
LGBT+ activists and advocates say this is because the government refuses to acknowledge same-sex acts as a mode of HIV transmission in prisons and won’t supply preventive measures such as condoms, preexposure prophylaxis, known as PrEP, and post-exposure prophylaxis, called PEP. And with the anti-homosexuality law passed in May 2023 — upheld by the Constitutional Court nearly a year later after being challenged by activists — they say the government has been able to double down on its stance, using the law a.
