John “Longjones” Abdallah Wambere
| John Abdallah Wambere | |
|---|---|
| Born | 2 November 1973 Mbale, Uganda |
| Known for | Ugandan LGBT rights activist |
John “Longjones” Abdallah Wambere is a Ugandan gay rights activist and co-founder of Spectrum Uganda Initiatives, a Kampala-based LGBTI rights advocacy organization with a focus on health education. Because of the threat of violence and persecution he faces in Uganda, Wambere was approved for asylum in the United States by the U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services on September 11, 2014. He currently resides in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Wambere was born in Mbala, Zambia on 2 November 1973. His family was Christian; his mother was midwife for the government and his father was in politics. In an interview on Legal Lines with Timothy Lynch, an LGBTQ Massachusetts Bar Association production, Wambere said of his childhood, “We heard about gay people. [People] spoke about gay people. But they were never condemned, they were never persecuted. No one went to torch their homes. They lived as part of the society, and some of them were appreciated as people of uniqueness, different people. And no one ever called them pedophiles.”
Although he first realized his sexual attraction to men at eight years of age, Wambere wrote in his application for asylum that he “struggled with [his] emerging sexuality throughout [his] childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood... Living in an extremely anti-gay environment made me fear for my safety and the safety of my family should my sexuality become publicly known.” However, he writes that in 1998, at twenty-six, “I realized that being gay made me happy because it is who I am. That was my truth, and that day, I washed my hands (and myself) of any notion of feeling sinful for who I am.”
In 2001, Wambere became involved in Homo Uganda, which evolved into Spectrum Uganda Initiatives (Spectrum) in 2002. Founded in 1998, Spectrum is a community-based organization under Sexual Minorities Uganda that focuses on providing support and sexual health education for the LGBTI community. They hold workshops to encourage people to check their HIV/STI status and use condoms and proper lubricants; they also provide advocacy support to help combat LGBTI discrimination. Wambere hosted Sunday gatherings at his home to “talk about issues pertaining to our sexuality and health, discuss our experiences in our communities, and generally offer opportunities to meet and socialize with other members of the community.” Wambere was elected to serve as Secretary of Spectrum in 2004.
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