With less than two weeks until election night, New York City mayoral hopeful Zohran Mamdani is the race's clear front-runner, with The New York Times reporting that he maintains a double-digit lead over the other candidates in the polls. With a few days left on the campaign trail, Mamdani's detractors are attempting to drum up any amount of sizable scrutiny against him. The New York Post published a story on Thursday stating that Mamdani's father, Mahmood, allegedly tried to silence an LGBTQ+ professor named Stella Nyanzi in 2016 by "padlocking her office, withholding her pay and pushing her out of his department at Makerere University" in Uganda. This, the Post alleges, was meant to keep her from teaching a queer African studies class, which he framed in the media as an attempt to "teach homosexuality to students," according to Nyanzi. The Post also reported that, Nyanzi, who is a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights in Uganda, stripped naked, taped her mouth shut, and chained herself to the university's doors in protest of Prof. Mamdani's actions. She told the outlet that she was "subjected to detention without trial, trumped-up charges, being put on a no-fly list, having her bank account frozen and an involuntary mental exam due to her protest against the university and the government."In 2020, Nyanzi reportedly sued the university and received a $32,200 settlement, although she alleges that she never received the salary withheld from her. Following the events, Nyanzi has remained a vocal critic of the country's leadership including its president, Yoweri Museveni, whom she described as being a puppeteer of Prof. Mamdani in her conversation with the Post. "The failure of Makerere University to protect me from further violation of my contract as a public servant and the failure to restrain and contain Prof. Mahmood Mamdani were instrumentalizations of dictator Yoweri Musevenis wife Janet Museveni," she said, referring to country's minister of education and sports. (@) And as of right now, Nyanzi said, she has no plans to return to Uganda after leaving for a writer-in-exile program run by PEN Germany until Museveni relinquishes power. "For me, as a queer African scholar, the criminalization of homosexual people (with a maximum penalty of up to 20 years in prison) makes it almost impossible for me to return to Uganda," she told the publicationIn July, mayoral candidate Mamdani drew criticism for appearing in a photo with Ugandas deputy prime minister, Rebecca Kadaga, who is said to be an advocate for criminalizing homosexuality in the country.