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Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” in defiance of Western condemnation and potential sanctions from aid donors.
Same-sex relationships are already illegal in Uganda, as they are in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further.
It imposes the death penalty for some behaviors, including transmitting a terminal disease like HIV/AIDS through gay sex, and stipulates a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.
“The Ugandan president has now legalized state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia,” said Clare Byarugaba, a Ugandan rights activist. “This is a dark and sad day for the LGBTIQ community, our allies and all of Uganda.”
He and other activists have vowed a legal challenge to the law, which Museveni is shown signing at a table with a golden pen in a photo tweeted by the Ugandan president.
The 78-year-old leader called homosexuality a “deviation from normality” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure.
Government, corporate curse
A less restrictive 2014 anti-LGBTQ law was upheld by domestic courts on procedural grounds, after Western governments initially suspended some aid, imposed visa restrictions and reduced security cooperation.
Uganda receives billions of dollars in foreign aid every year and could now face another round of sanctions.
The bill’s sponsor, Asuman Basalirwa, told reporters that House Speaker Anita Among’s US visa was canceled after the law was signed. He and the US Embassy in Uganda did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The White House condemned the bill after it was approved in March, and last month the US government said it was evaluating the implications of the legislation for activities in Uganda under PEPFAR, the flagship HIV/AIDS program.
In a joint statement on Monday, PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Joint United Nations Program on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the law puts Uganda’s anti-HIV fight “in serious jeopardy.”
LISTENING | Activists fear fellow Ugandans over anti-LGBTQ bill:
As it happens6:37 a.mLGBTQ rights activists fear their fellow Ugandans but will not be silenced
Uganda’s parliament passed an anti-gay bill this week, making it a crime to identify as LGBTQ. Ugandan LGBTQ rights activist Kasha Jacqueline Nabagesera told As It Happens host Nil Köksal why she does not hide her lesbian identity and will continue to speak out for LGBTQ rights in the East African country.
Dominic Arnall, chief executive of Open For Business, a coalition of companies that includes Google and Microsoft, said the group was deeply disappointed.
“Our data shows that this law is against the interests of economic progress and the well-being of all people in Uganda,” he said.
Fears other countries may follow suit
The European Union reiterated its condemnation from March, when the United Nations human rights body said the law was a recipe for systematic violations of Ugandans’ rights.
“We are appalled that the draconian and discriminatory anti-gay bill is now the law,” he tweeted.
Uganda’s move could encourage lawmakers in other countries on the continent to follow suit.
“We see the same pattern in other countries in the region. We have seen attacks on LGBTQ people in Burundi, very hostile rhetoric in Kenya and Tanzania from public figures and on social media. It is very hostile,” Human Rights Watch researcher Oryem Nyeko told CBC Now in March.
Museveni has sent the original bill back to MPs, asking them to tone down some provisions. The amended version states that simply identifying as LGBTQ is not a crime and amends the measure requiring people to report homosexual activity to only require reporting when children are involved.
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