British monarchs exported anti-gay laws to 50+ Commonwealth countries
By Abbey Kiwanuka
The Independent – 30th May 2026
I was tortured in Uganda because I am gay. I fled to the UK in 2003 and sought asylum. I arrived in Britain with cigarette burns on my palms and legs, alongside scars on my face caused by repeated beatings.
I am lucky and grateful to be here. But I still feel conflicted whenever politicians or the King speak warmly about the Commonwealth. Its ideals bear little resemblance to reality. Millions of LGBTs live in the 29 Commonwealth countries that criminalise their relationships and, in some cases, threaten their lives, including my home country Uganda.
Most of these anti-LGBT+ laws are not ancient indigenous legislations. They were introduced in the name of successive monarchs during the era of British colonial rule. The British Empire exported Victorian moral codes throughout Africa, the Caribbean and parts of Asia and the Pacific, through penal systems that criminalised same-sex relationships under offences such as “gross indecency” and “unnatural acts.” These remained embedded after independence. Britain gradually liberalised many of its own laws, but much of its former empire was left with the toxic legacy of homophobic laws.
King Charles is head of the Commonwealth. He frequently speaks about unity and the strength of the Commonwealth family, yet he never addresses the on-going persecution of millions of LGBT+ citizens. His predecessor monarchs authorised this homophobic tyranny. The Peter Tatchell Foundation wrote to the King, asking him to express regret for the role of previous monarchs. The King has not replied.
The Commonwealth Charter commits member states to equality and non-discrimination, but those principles ring hollow when LGBT+ people across the Commonwealth continue to face imprisonment, mob violence and exclusion from employment, housing, education and healthcare.
This is why Shirley Ayorkor Botchwey’s tenure as the new Commonwealth Secretary General matters so much. As a former Ghanaian foreign minister taking over leadership of the organisation, I hope she will make it clear that the persecution of LGBT+ people is incompatible with Commonwealth values and incompatible with the Charter itself. The organisation cannot continue celebrating equality rhetorically while tolerating laws that criminalise LGBTs across nearly half its membership, including in Ghana.
She knows that 29 of the 56 Commonwealth countries still criminalise homosexuality with punishments ranging from 10-20 years imprisonment to life sentences in six Commonwealth countries. In three other Commonwealth countries LGBTs can risk execution.
Uganda’s 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Act imposes the death penalty for what the government terms “aggravated homosexuality” – including repeat acts of consenting adult same-sex behaviour and sex involving partners aged 75 and older. Other same-sex relations can lead to life imprisonment, under the old colonial-era laws.
The northern states of Nigeria enforce Sharia law, which can carry the death penalty. Brunei also makes homosexuality a capital offence.
A bill currently before the parliament in Ghana would make it a serious imprisonable offence to identify as LGBT+ or to advocate equal rights.
In Nigeria, Cameroon, Malaysia, Kenya, Bangladesh and Tanzania, LGBT+ people face arrest, intimidation, harassment, discrimination and mob violence. Human rights organisations have documented police raids, forced outings and violent attacks carried out with almost no chance of the perpetrators being bought to justice. Indeed, when LGBTs report violent attacks to the police, they risk abuse, arrest, bashing and sexual assault.
These realities are often discussed in Britain as far away problems that are disconnected from ordinary life. Yet they are the daily life for millions of LGBTs who struggle to survive.
I was one of them. I remember friends back home in Uganda lowering their voices before mentioning anything related to sexuality, even in private conversations. I remember hearing about young people forced out onto the streets by their families after rumours spread about them. In Uganda, activists have spoken about living in hiding after newspapers published their names and photographs beneath calls for punishment. Even where prosecutions are inconsistent, laws like these legitimise a culture in which violence and humiliation become easier to justify.
The ‘Commonwealth Walk of Shame’, organised by the Peter Tatchell Foundation, will march this Saturday (30 May) through London to the High Commissions of several of the most homophobic Commonwealth countries. We will be given a send off at the Nigerian High Commission by Sir Ian McKellen. Our call is for Commonwealth countries to uphold the Commonwealth Charter, and for the King and Secretary General to give a lead.
While the tiny Peter Tatchell Foundation is pushing the Commonwealth to change, and giving Ugandan LGBT+ activists practical aid, I am disappointed that huge multi-million-pound LGBT+ charities, such as Stonewall, are not doing more to call out the silence of the King and the Commonwealth Secretary General. They are doing too little to challenge the extreme persecution of homophobic tyrannies like Uganda.
If the Commonwealth’s principles are to mean anything at all, they must apply to the gay teenager in Kampala terrified of being exposed, beaten and arrested, like I was – and to every LGBT+ person across the Commonwealth still waiting to be treated with dignity, respect and equality.