Zohran Mamdani’s photo with Ugandan anti-LGBTQ official sparks controversy

Former New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on Sunday blasted Democratic New York mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani for smiling in a photo alongside a former Ugandan official who once championed anti-LGBTQ policies.

Photos resurfaced over the weekend of Uganda-born Mamdani smiling alongside former Speaker of Uganda’s Parliament and current First Deputy Prime Minister, Rebecca Kadaga, who supported Uganda’s 2014 anti-homosexuality law. The New York Post was the first to report the photos.

“How does a self-described progressive candidate for mayor of New York – home of Stonewall, the city that led the fight for equality – find himself smiling alongside one of the most notorious anti-LGBTQ figures on the planet? And how does he manage to maintain dual citizenship in a country that criminalizes people simply for who they love?” » Cuomo asked in a statement Sunday.

Mamdani’s campaign did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment, but a spokesperson told the Post that Mamdani “was not aware” of Kadaga’s support for anti-LGBTQ legislation.

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Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo criticized New York Democratic mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani, left, over a photo. (Richard Drew/AP Photo; Julia Demaree Nikhinson/AP Photo)

“Nice to meet Zohran Mamdani, new mayor of New York. Good luck for the next electoral phase”, Kadaga captioned the photo which circulated on social networks this weekend.

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In a second post on July 31, Kadaga posed for another photo with Mamdani and the socialist candidate’s father, Mahmood Mamdani, a professor at Columbia University.

“Here with Zohran Mamdani and Professor Mamdani as Zohran returns to New York after his traditional wedding in Kampala,” Kadaga’s post read.

Cuomo ridiculed Mamdani on Sunday for posing for the photo as New York City grappled with a mass shooting in Midtown Manhattan.

Zohran Mamdani, Democratic candidate for mayor of New York, speaks to volunteers at a poll launch in Brooklyn on September 28, 2025. (Michael Nigro/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images)

“Mamdani now claims he didn’t know who she was – it’s laughable. Kadaga’s crusade against Uganda’s LGBTQ community has drawn global condemnation for over a decade. Any serious official, especially a Ugandan official, would know exactly who she is,” Cuomo said.

According to the Anti-homosexuality law of 2014, the legislation was created to prohibit “all forms of sexual relations between persons of the same sex.”

Kadaga told Reuters in November 2012 that Ugandans wanted the law to be passed as a “Christmas present”.

“They asked for it and we will give them this gift,” Kadaga said.

President Barack Obama denounced the bill as “abhorrent.”

President Joe Biden called it a “tragic violation of universal human rights“.

The Ugandan Constitutional Court annulled the 2014 law due to lack of quorum, but the Ugandan Parliament I upgraded to the new version legislation in 2023, which criminalizes homosexual relations and imposes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”.

Mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo speaks during a Democratic mayoral forum at Medgar Evers College in New York on April 23, 2025. (David Delgado/Reuters)

“New Yorkers deserve a mayor who stands up for principles, not one who hides behind excuses. Zohran Mamdani has repeatedly demonstrated one quality: duplicity,” Cuomo said Sunday. “And as we learned, if he smiles, he’s lying.”

Mamdani’s association with an anti-LGBTQ activist stands in stark contrast to his campaign platform. A pillar of his “Trump-proofing” plan for new york city “protects LGBTQIA+ New Yorkers.”

He pledged to strengthen and protect “gender-affirming care” and protect LGBTQ youth, their families, and New York City health care providers from legal persecution for receiving such care.

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While criticizing Mamdani’s photo with Kadaga on Sunday, Cuomo touted his own record supporting the LGBTQ community.

“As governor, I was proud to make New York the first large state in the nation to pass marriage equality. We passed GENDA to protect transgender New Yorkers, legalized surrogacy so families could grow up with dignity, and built on the legacy of Stonewall to make equality not just a slogan but the law of the land,” Cuomo said.

Fox News Digital reached out to Kadaga for comment but did not immediately receive a response.