The topic of homosexuality is considered taboo in Rwanda. The LGBTI community is marginalized and stigmatized due to sexual orientation. To avoid physical and verbal abuse and harassment, LGBTI people must keep their sexuality and gender identity a secret. According to a report compiled by the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, ‘Rwanda: information sur la situation des hommes gais en 2007,’ members of the LGBTI community are often arbitrarily imprisoned or mistreated. The police confiscated and destroyed the identity card of one of the members of the LGBTI organization Horizon Community Association of Rwanda (HOCA), and he was unable to replace it.

LGBT Asylum News reports that arbitrary arrests of LGBTI citizens and gay activists have been increasing. In the International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission’s (IGLHRC) 2009 Shadow Report, there were reports that in October 2007, Kigali police arbitrarily arrested a member of the LGBTI organization HOCA, for being homosexual, despite the fact that homosexuality is not criminalized in Rwanda. Another member of HOCA  was also arrested by Kigali police and detained for three months on nonexistent charges of homosexuality. His name, address, and picture were broadcast on TV, in newspapers and over the radio. Police arrested individuals for allegedly being homosexual and detained them for between several days to three months without access to counsel or court. In 2007 a radio show host publicly named three gay activists and told his listeners to find and burn gay activists. Such threats to those who support gay rights has resulted in the few LGBTI organizations that do exists having to carry out their activities in private for fear of abuse and harassment. While the amendment for Article 217 of the penal code was rejected, if the amendments for Article 191 were to be approved, the members of such organizations who aim to support the LGBTI community would be at an even higher risk of abuse because they would be considered as ‘encouraging’ or ‘sensitizing’ people to same-sex relations or practice and could face imprisonment of between five and ten years.

In 2005, Globalgayz interviewed a 28 year-old homosexual Rwandan man about the situation for the LGBTI community in Rwanda. He reported that there is no freedom of expression for homosexuals in Rwanda and all homosexual activity must be kept underground. The interviewee states that while gay men are able to find sexual partners discreetly, often in return for money from foreigners, there is no evidence of lesbian women being able to have any kind of public relationship. In an attempt to catch men committing homosexual acts, there are ‘gay spies’ who are given money to trap homosexuals. However, there is such a need for money that many of the ‘spies’ use the money to buy things for themselves instead of buying sex from other men.  For while homosexuality is technically legal, he states that all gay men know that they will be persecuted if they were to be open about their sexual orientation and it carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment.

Before the war Rwanda had few outside influences or ideas, but the increased movement of people after the war, the interviewee believes, introduced homosexuality into Rwandan society. The interviewee claims that before the war homosexuality was not an issue. Homosexuality is considered to be a foreign evil that is perverting traditional and cultural beliefs. This is propagated by traditional storytelling, which is a powerful tool in preaching against homosexuality, since the tales that include homosexuality always confirm that it is a foreign idea and wrong. Religion also plays a large part in the anti-gay movement. On February 24, 2007, the Archbishop of the Episcopal Church of Rwanda called homosexuality ‘moral genocide.’