Clare Byarugaba
Uganda
Clare Byarugaba, BINB, is one of only a few openly LGBTQ+ rights advocates in Uganda. In her role as the diversity, equity, and inclusion officer at Chapter Four Uganda, she founded the country’s first-ever chapter of Parents, Families, and Friends of LGBTQI+ Children, PFLAG-Uganda.
She is a coconvener of the Convening For Equality social movement that is leading the fight against the Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 and other emerging anti-LGBTQ+ rights legislation in Uganda. She also cofounded the Uganda Kuchus Aquatic Team (UKAT), the first LGBTQ+ swim team in Africa.
Between 2012–2014, Byarugaba coordinated Uganda’s Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, a national coalition of more than 50 diverse organizations that used their collective power to successfully fight against the country’s draconian Anti-Homosexuality Law of 2009. She has worked with the National Democratic Institute and interned at the Parliament of Uganda. In 2015, she was a member of a World Bank advisory committee on LGBTQ+ rights issues in East Africa. She is a USAID/CDC Gender and Sexuality Certified Diversity Trainer.
Byarugaba has received numerous international awards and honors for her work in human rights. In 2011, she and the coalition received the US Department of State’s Human Rights Defender Award. Her work also earned her the 2014 Oak Human Rights Fellowship and the 2018 Aspen Institute’s New Voices Fellowship. More recently, she was awarded the 2023 Embassy of the Netherlands Human Rights Tulip and the 2024 William D. Zabel Human Rights Award. In 2025, she was named an honorary citizen by the City of Lyon.
Byarugaba’s most recent publications include:
- “When You Love Something, You Fight for It”
- “Uganda’s Horrific Anti-LGBTIQ+ Bill Returns: The Stakes Are Higher Than Ever”
- Coauthor of a chapter in Paul Behrens and Sean Becker’s book, Justice After Stonewall: LGBT Life Between Challenge and Change
- Coauthor, “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”
- “Swimming for Visibility and Inclusion for LGBT People”
