Frank Mugisha
A Ugandan activist who built practical support networks and challenged anti-LGBTQ persecution.
Frank Mugisha was born in Kampala in 1979. Raised in a Catholic family, he came out while still young and learned how easily questions of sexuality could threaten family ties, housing and personal safety.
In 2004 he founded Icebreakers Uganda to support LGBTQ people, including those coming out to their families. His work later centred on Sexual Minorities Uganda, known as SMUG, where he became executive director and helped bring the country’s treatment of LGBTQ people to international attention.
The murder of his friend and fellow activist David Kato in 2011 made the risks painfully clear. That year Mugisha received the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award and the Rafto Prize. He campaigned against the 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, which the Constitutional Court struck down on procedural grounds.
Pressure on the movement intensified when authorities ordered SMUG to stop operating in 2022. In 2023 a new Anti-Homosexuality Act introduced further offences and the death penalty for acts classified as “aggravated homosexuality”. Mugisha challenged the legislation publicly while continuing to advocate for people facing persecution, displacement and threats.