The Anti-Gay Bill 2023 had broad support in Parliament and was passed.Under the law, people who identify as LGBTQ can be jailed for up to 10 years
Published Date – Wed, 3/22/23 at 11:30am
Representative images.
Kampala: Uganda’s parliament has passed a bill criminalizing people who identify as LGBTQ, under which a person could be jailed for up to 10 years.
With homosexual behavior already illegal in the East African country, friends, family and community members would be obliged to report individuals in same-sex relationships to authorities under the proposed 2023 anti-gay bill, the BBC reported.
The bill, which was first tabled earlier this month, gained broad support in parliament late Tuesday.
It will now go to President Yoweri Museveni, who can choose to use his veto or sign it into law.
The bill also provides for life in prison for anyone convicted of engaging a child in homosexual activity.
Individuals or organizations who support or finance LGBT rights activities or organizations, or who publish, broadcast and distribute pro-gay media and literature also face prosecution and imprisonment.
Introducing the bill to parliament, opposition lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa said it was aimed at “preserving our church culture; the laws, religion and traditional family values of Ugandans may be Behavior that promotes sexual promiscuity,” CNN reported.
“The purpose of this bill is to establish comprehensive and strengthened legislation to protect traditional family values, our multiculturalism, our faith .same sex,” he added.
But a small group of Ugandan lawmakers on the committee reviewing the bill argued that the country’s penal code already covers the offenses the bill seeks to criminalize.
Lawmaker Fox Odoi-Oywelowo has spoken out against the bill, saying it “violates established international and regional human rights standards” because it “unfairly restricts the fundamental rights of LGBTQ+ people”.
Rights advocacy group Human Rights Watch warned earlier this month that the law would violate Ugandans’ rights to free speech, privacy of association, equality and non-discrimination, CNN reported.
Uganda made headlines in 2009 when it introduced an anti-gay bill that included the death penalty for homosexual acts.
Lawmakers passed a bill in 2014, but they replaced the death penalty with a proposal for life in prison. But the law was eventually overturned.
Same-sex relationships are banned in some 30 African countries, many of which espouse conservative religious and social values.
