Juliet Victor Mukasa, human rights defender, and activist from Uganda, claimed an identity, as a Transgender Lesbian and started speaking out in the local media about the oppression of LGBTI people in Uganda around 2002.   

Uganda is known to have zero tolerance to homosexualty and on 5 July 2005, the Ugandan government voted for a constitutional amendment to the effect that ‘marriage is lawful only if entered into between a man and woman’ and that it was ‘unlawful for same-sex couples to marry.’  During this time, when mainstream media and many AIDS activists articulated homophobic viewpoints, Victor continued to speak out as an individual and as founder and chairperson of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG).  On 20 July 2005 Victor’s house was raided by the police without a search warrant.  They were looking for documents relating to the activities of SMUG.  Victor was not home at the time of the raid.  The police confiscated documents and arbitrarily arrested Yvonne Oyhoo who happened to be at Victor’s house at the time.  After suffering humiliating  and degrading treatment from the police, Yvonne was released on the condition that she had to return the following morning with the chairperson of SMUG.   

Following the raid, Mukasa publicly declared his intent to sue the Ugandan government for violation of his and Yvonne’s human rights. When he did, Mukasa started getting threats from government officials to withdraw the case. He went into hiding within Uganda with the help of Amnesty International and several other regional and international human rights organizations.