Trans Activist Denied Access to Account

Once again, the country of Uganda is showing its homophobia. Several days ago when female to male transgendered activist Juliet Victor Mukasa went to his bank to take money out of his account, he was told that his account was frozen.

According to the Advocate, Mukasa was born female and now identifies and expresses himself as male. An activist for transgendered issues, he is cofounder of the Sexual Minorities Uganda group and is a research and policy analyst for the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission. He lives in Kampala, Uganda.

He was honest with the bank when asked about his place of employment. He asked if this would be an issue upon opening the account. Days later when he returned to withdraw money, he learned that he could no not access his money. According to the teller, because he works for a homosexual organization and because homosexuality is illegal in his country, there was a freeze on the account.

The bank in question (Standard Chartered Bank) is based in the U.K., not Uganda, so Mukasa assumed that the bank wouldn't fall prey to the local homophobic practices of other institutions. But he was incorrect. In spite of taking his complaint through several bank managers, his account still remains frozen.