NYC mayoral front runner under fire over backing from Uganda homophobe
‘Kill the Gays’ leader Rebecca Kadaga to Mamdani: ‘Good luck”
By a strange turn of events, New York’s front-running mayoral candidate, an LGBTQ rights supporter, has the blessing of one of Uganda’s most prominent anti-gay politicians.
Zohran Mamdani, who leads the polls ahead of next Tuesday’s election, won the backing of Rebecca Kadaga, the mastermind of Uganda’s 2013 Anti-Homosexuality Act, also known as the “Kill the Gays” bill.
The two politicians had a brief encounter back in July, when the two met at the airport in Uganda, where Mamdani attended his own wedding with Ugandan members of his family.
“Zohran Mamdani ran into the First Deputy Minister [Kadaga] while he was at Entebbe airport waiting to board his flight back to New York City. She asked to take a photo,” said Mamdani campaign spokesperson Dora Pekec, as quoted in the New York Post.
In a post on X, Kadaga shared a photo of her with Zohran Mamdani and his father, Uganda-based Prof. Mahmood Mamdani. She added the comment: “Here with Zohran Mamdhani and Prof. Mamdhani as Zohran returns to New York after his traditional wedding in Kampala”.
In a second post, she shared a photo of her with Zohran with a comment;
“Delighted to meet with Zohran Mamdhani incoming Mayor of New York City. Good luck in the next phase of elections”.
Before long, it emerged that the person standing next to the pro-LGBT “incoming mayor of New York City” was the anti-LGBT politician who orchestrated Uganda’s harsh Anti-Homosexuality Act 2013 and described it as a Christmas gift to Ugandans. (That law was overturned in 2014 but largely revived in the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023.)
Zohran’s top political opponent, former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, was among the first to take aim at him, wondering how a self-proclaimed progressive candidate for New York City, the birthplace of the Stonewall gay civil rights movement, found himself “smiling beside one of the most notorious anti-LGBTQ figures on the planet”.
The Mamdani campaign team shifted into damage-control mode, claiming that he was not aware of Kadaga’s record as an anti-gay crusader.
Campaign spokesperson Pekec insisted that Mamdani would have declined the photo moment if he was aware that Kadaga was the architect of 2013’s horrific homophobic attack on queer Ugandans.
But Kadaga had made headlines globally following her leading role in the enactment of AHA 2013 and her homophobic remarks at high level international events including the 138th Inter Parliamentary Union assembly held in 2018 in Geneva.
So the Mamdani campaign ’s claim that he was not aware of Kadaga’s homophobic history was met with harsh criticism.
Cuomo tore into Mamdani’s defense: “Mamdani now claims he didn’t know who she was. That is laughable. Kadaga’s crusade against Uganda’s LGBTQ community has been condemned around the world for well over a decade. Any serious public official, particularly one from Uganda, would know exactly who she is.”
Cuomo tried to score political points by presenting himself as a better candidate.
“New Yorkers deserve a mayor who stands on principle – not one who hides behind excuses. Zohran Mamdani has shown one quality time and again: duplicity” Cuomo said.
In Uganda, Nicholas Opiyo, a human rights lawyer, expressed sympathy for Mamdani:
“Who would have thought a picture with Rebecca Kadaga would cause such a political headache? Well, the Democratic candidate for mayor of New York is having to deal with this …”
Despite the harsh criticism largely from his rival political camp, Zohran seems to still enjoy significant support from the LGBTQI+ community and some of them have spoken out in his defense.
“Zohran has been a friend to the LGBT community. Zohran has supported every pro-LGBT piece of legislation and has been one of our most articulate spokesmen in the state legislature,” said Allen Roskoff, head of the citywide Jim Owles Liberal LGBT Democratic Club, as told the New York Post.
I challenged Mamdani to speak out and condemn the AHA and he has ignored requests and remained silent! I have written several articles about why its important for him to condemn the law. His silence is disturbing and lacks moral clarity…. ironically there are many asylum seekers from Uganda who have made NYC home – he has failed them already!