Charges dropped against women arrested for allegedly hosting “same-sex orgies”

The women were arrested as Uganda cracks down on LGBTQ+ rights.

Charges against two women who were arrested for kissing in public were dropped, prosecutors in Uganda confirmed earlier this month.

The two women – Wendy Faith, a 22-year-old dancer, and Alesa Diana Denise, unemployed and 21 years old – were arrested in February after they moved into a studio apartment together and neighbors reported them to police for allegedly kissing in public, a spokesperson for the local police in Northwestern Uganda said at the time.

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“They had seen many women going onto their one-roomed rented residence and spending nights there in what they suspected was same-sex orgies,” the police spokesperson added. Police said that neighbors had shared photos of the women and their alleged “same-sex orgies” with them.

The women faced charges under the East African country’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which imposes penalties of possible life imprisonment and death for “aggravated homosexuality.”

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But now the charges have been withdrawn, a spokesperson for the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions told AFP.

Human rights lawyer Frank Mugisha said it’s good that the charges were dropped, but they should never have been filed in the first place.

“Kissing is not a crime, and no one should be persecuted for who they are or who they love,” he said. “I hope this decision marks the beginning of a wider review of similar cases and that all unjust prosecutions arising from the Anti-Homosexuality Act are dropped.”

The case “should never have reached this stage,” he added.

Earlier this year, a Ugandan court  rejected the first case brought under the 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act, after it found the man charged was unfit to stand trial due to his extended detention in prison between arrest and trial.

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