Clare Byarugaba

Clare Byarugaba, BINB, is one of only a few openly LGBTI rights activists in Uganda. In her role as Equality and Non-discrimination program officer at Chapter Four Uganda, she founded the first-ever Parents and Families, Friends of LGBTI children (PFLAG-Uganda) a social intervention project that aims to foster dialogue and reconciliation between LGBTI individuals and their families.

She is Co-Convener of the Convening For Equality, a social movement that is leading the fight against the Anti-Homosexuality law 2023 and other emerging Anti-Rights legislation in Uganda. She also co-founded the Uganda Kuchus Aquatic Team (UKAT) the first-ever LGBTI swim team in Africa that uses Aquatic sport to advocate for inclusion and non-discrimination.

Between 2012-2014, she coordinated a National Coalition of over 50 diverse organizations that used their collective power to successfully fight against the 2009 draconian Anti-Homosexuality bill. Clare has worked with the National Democratic Institute, and interned at the Parliament of Uganda. In 2015, she was a member of a committee that advised the World Bank on LGBTI rights issues in East Africa and is a USAID/CDC Gender and Sexuality certified Diversity Trainer.

Clare and the Coalition received the 2011 US State Department’s Human Rights Defender Award for their tireless work. Directly related to this work, Clare was awarded the 2014 Oak Human Rights fellowship and the 2018 Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship. She was also awarded the 2023 Embassy of the Netherlands Human Rights Tulip.

Byarugaba's most recent publications include;

(With Maria Burnett) Uganda’s Horrific Anti-LGBTIQ+ Bill Returns: The Stakes are Higher Than Ever https://www.csis.org/analysis/ugandas-horrific-anti-lgbtiq-bill-returns-... (3 May 2023)

Justice After Stonewall LGBT Life Between Challenge and Change; Part 1, Chapter 5 (The LGBTI Movement Organising in a Time of Peril: A Case Study of Uganda

Clare Byarugaba https://www.routledge.com/Justice-After-Stonewall-LGBT-Life-Between-Chal... (31 January 2023)

(With Ashanut Okille), My Child is Different. A Baseline Study of the Perceptions and Experiences of Parents, Families and their Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex Children in Uganda (Chapter Four Uganda Publications 2019),

'On the Front Pages', World Policy Institute, Program for African Thought (12 June 2018), http://worldpolicy-africa.org/2018/06/on-the-front-pages/ and

Swimming for visibility and inclusion for LGBT people (29 October 2018) (https://www.openlynews.com/i/?id=5d9867d3-8db5-4190-ab0d-1606c45cf080