Ugandan trans pastor honored at WorldPride Amsterdam
Aggie Dennett Harmon ministers to trans and queer people in Uganda
Ugandan trans pastor and community leader Aggie Dennett Harmon was one of five people honored as outstanding ‘Equality Champions‘ during this month’s WorldPride festival in Amsterdam.
Harmon supports LGBTIQ+ people in Uganda – particularly trans women – facing violence, displacement and exclusion. She co-founded Talented Youth Community Fellowship Uganda, a trans women-led organisation offering psychosocial support, trauma-informed care, peer networks and empowerment programmes. She also founded the Nange Healing and Harm Reduction Center, a safe and affirming space for trans people and people who use drugs. Through her ministry, advocacy, storytelling and books, she promotes healing and belonging while helping reconcile faith and queerness.
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and ILGA World honoured five ‘Equality Champions’ with the International Pride Awards during a ceremony at the WorldPride Human Rights Conference in Amsterdam.
The 2026 International Pride Awards celebrate individuals and organizations whose courage, leadership and commitment are advancing equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex and queer (LGBTIQ+) people around the world.
Other honorees this year were:
- South African deputy minister Mmapaseka Steve Letsike,
- COC Nederland, the oldest LGBT rights organization in the world,
- Chilean trans activist Marcela Dimonty, and
- Indian disability rights advocate and LGBTIQ+ ally Dr Satendra Singh
As the South African IOL website reports, in 2020, Harmon and two other transgender Ugandan women, Harmon established Talented Youth Community Fellowship Uganda (TAYCOF), a Kampala-based, in-person, “interfaith and ecumenical” ministry for LGBTIQA+ Ugandans.
In addition to the church, TAYCOF ran a shelter for homeless GBT Women and offered mental health support, Bible study classes, sports, HIV testing, and referrals for medical treatments.
After the passage of the Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2023, church operations had to be shut down. Church services were moved online.
IOL reported, “No longer safe to meet in-person with her Kampala-based congregation, Annet and Dennett-Harmon have moved the weekly services online. And although data is ‘very expensive’, making it prohibitive for many to attend, the move online has extended the reach of the weekly services, with congregants – ‘sometimes up to 100’ – now joining from various parts of Uganda and Kenya. ”
Harmon says both she and her congregation benefit from the church services.
““It helps me with my own trauma and my own worries,” she says. “Because I’m always sad. I’m always scared of what is going to happen. But then, talking to everyone and you feel love and you feel strong because everyone else is standing with you in solidarity. So, it gives me this kind of hope that there is a better tomorrow.”
