Mayoral frontrunner Zohran Mamdani flashed a beaming smile in a cringeworthy photo with a top Ugandan official who pushed harsh anti-LGBT policies — that included life imprisonment for gay people.
Mamdani met with Rebecca Kadaga in July during a break from the campaign trail — after winning the Democratic primary — that included a lavish celebration of his recent nuptials at a secluded Ugandan compound owned by his family.
“Delighted to meet with Zohran Mamdhani (sic), incoming Mayor of New York City. Good luck in the next phase of elections,” Kadaga said in a caption of a photo of her with a grinning Mamdani.
“Here with Zohran Mamdhani and Prof Mamdhani as Zohran returns to New York after his traditional wedding in Kampala,” she gushed in another photo of her, Mamdani and his father, Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani.
The Mamdani campaign was left scrambling Sunday as photos of the meeting re-emerged, as a spokesperson claimed the democratic socialist candidate was “unaware” of Kadaga’s widely reported status as an anti-gay crusader.
In 2012, then-Speaker Kadaga infamously said she was passing a draconian law imposing severe penalties against practicing homosexuals as a “Christmas gift” for supporters of the measure.
“Ugandans want that law as a Christmas gift. They have asked for it and we’ll give them that gift,” Kadaga said then.
Then-President Barack Obama called the legislation “odious.”
Kadaha has been the first deputy prime minister since 2021, following a 10-year stint as the powerful parliament speaker.
In 2024, the Ugandan government passed a law that further criminalizes LGBT people.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act criminalized consensual same-sex conduct with penalties of up to life imprisonment, attempted homosexual acts with penalties of 14 years in prison for first time offenses.
The initial draft called for the death penalty for those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes repeated same sex acts and intercourse with a person younger than 18, older than 75, or a person with a disability.
But capital punishment was removed from the legislation following international criticism in favor of life imprisonment.
The parliament passed a similar anti-LGBT law in 2013 when Kadaga was the speaker. It was struck down in court because the parliament lacked a quorum during the vote to pass it.
Mamdani’s camp said it didn’t know Kadaga was the “architect” of Uganda’s vicious anti-LGBT law.
“Zohran Mamdani ran into the First Deputy Minister 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.
“If he was aware she was the architect of this horrific attack on queer Ugandans, he would not have done so,” Pekec went on. “Zohran’s belief in universal human rights extends to all people, and he has put forward the most comprehensive plan of any candidate to protect LGBTQ+ New Yorkers.
“As Mayor, he will continue his record of action and values to make this a city where trans New Yorkers are cherished, our queer neighbors are celebrated, and each and every New Yorker can be the fullest version of themselves.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s running for mayor as an independent against Mamdani, blasted his rival for the awkward photo — and tore into him for the explanation.
“And as we’ve learned, if he’s smiling, he’s lying,” said Cuomo, who as governor approved the state’s gay marriage law and other pro-LGBT legislation.
He noted the photo was taken around the time of a mass shooting on Park Avenue in Manhattan that resulted in the death of an NYPD officer.
“Mamdani now claims he didn’t know who she was. That is laughable,” Cuomo went on. “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 asked 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?”
And, he added, “how does he maintain dual citizenship in a country that criminalizes people simply for who they love?”
“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.
Some gay activists expressed outrage that Mamdani warmly greeted a gay hater.
Chris Lynn, a co-founder of the Stonewall Democratic Club, the city’s first citywide LGBT club, wasn’t buying Mamdani’s explanation that he didn’t know who Kadaga was.
“He’s either a liar or incredibly ill-informed. Oh, come on! No one thinks he’s that ill-informed,” Lynn said.
Other gay activists defended Mamdani, saying he’s been a staunch advocate of the LGBT community as a state Assembly member.
“I know Zohran. I take Zohran at his word,” said Allen Roskoff, head of the citywide Jim Owles LIberal LGBT Democratic Club.
“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,” he said.
Ugandan authorities have perpetrated widespread discrimination and violence against LGBT residents and supporters in the two years since the Anti-Homosexuality Act was approved, the civil rights group Human Rights Watch said in a scathing report released in May.
“For the last two years, LGBT Ugandans have suffered a range of abuses because of the government’s willful decision to legislate hate against them,” said Oryem Nyeko, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Ugandan officials have spread public misinformation and hatred against LGBT people, leading to an uptick in attacks and harassment against LGBT residents and rights groups, the report said.
“The timing of the meeting with Kadaga, a seasoned politician with a history of high-profile roles including Speaker of Parliament, suggests an effort to strengthen transatlantic ties or garner support ahead of Zohran’s mayoral bid,” the group watchdoguganda.com said.
“For Uganda, Zohran’s visits and family ties symbolize a bridge between East African heritage and Western politics, potentially influencing diaspora engagement. ….As Zohran campaigns in New York, his Ugandan roots and elite connections may bolster his narrative of cultural richness—or expose contradictions in his political ethos,” the group said.
Mamdani is facing Cuomo and Republican Curtis Sliwa in the general election on Nov. 4 after having beat Cuomo and several other candidates in a crowded ranked-choice Democratic Party primary in June.
Current Mayor Eric Adams dropped out of the primary then ran a campaign as an independent that he ended last month among dismal polling numbers and deflating donations.
