Lawmakers in Uganda on Tuesday once again passed the anti-LGBTQ capital punishment “Kill the Gays” bill, and have sent it to President Yoweri Museveni’s desk for his signature. The legislation provides for the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” and 20 years in prison for “promoting” homosexuality.
Last month the president of the East African nation returned the bill to lawmakers, asking them to remove penalties for identifying as LGBTQ, which they did, the Associated Press reports.
“Homosexuality was already illegal in the East African country under a colonial-era law criminalizing sexual activity ‘against the order of nature.’ The punishment for that offense is life imprisonment,” according to the AP.
“Aggravated homosexuality” is defined as “cases of sexual relations involving a minor and other categories of vulnerable people, or when the perpetrator is infected with HIV,” the AP reports. “A suspect convicted of ‘attempted aggravated homosexuality’ can be imprisoned for up to 14 years, in prison, and the offense of ‘attempted homosexuality’ is punishable by up to 10 years, according to the bill.”
Western nations including the United States have urged President Museveni to veto the extreme legislation, but he has signaled he supports it.
Last month he said homosexuality was “a big threat and danger to the procreation of human race [sic],” The Guardian reported. “Africa should provide the lead to save the world from this degeneration and decadence, which is really very dangerous for humanity. If people of opposite sex [sic] stop appreciating one another then how will the human race be propagated?”
His comments came just days after a conference on “family values and sovereignty,” which “was promoted by the Ugandan parliament, the African Bar Association and the Nigerian-based Foundation for African Cultural Heritage. Delegates could also attend the conference online, hosted by the US evangelical Christian organisation Family Watch International, which is defined as an anti-LGBT hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a watchdog that monitors the far right. The president of Family Watch, Sharon Slater, who also chairs the UN Family Rights Caucus lobby group, spoke at the event.”
During that conference Uganda’s First Lady Janet Museveni posted a tweet praising Family Watch International’s Slater.