Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has upheld the “strong stand” the Ugandan parliament took in anti-LGBTQ legislation passed last month, which mandates the death penalty for some acts. Though Museveni failed to sign the legislation, that doesn’t mean LGBTQ Ugandans are safe; he’ll likely sign the bill with provisions for “rehabilitation.”
Uganda is one of several African nations where it is illegal to be queer; the nation enacted its Anti-Homosexuality Act in 2014, which allowed for life imprisonment for some homosexual acts between consenting adults, and codified the repression of LGBTQ Ugandans. That legislation was annulled in court in 2014, though homosexuality was still illegal per previous law, according to a Human Rights Watch report.
The latest bill takes Uganda’s anti-LGBTQ policies much further, punishing LGBTQ advocacy with up to 20 years in prison and proposing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” — homosexual acts involving children or members of other at-risk groups, or involving a person who is HIV positive. A person convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality” can be imprisoned for up to 14 years, and “attempted homosexuality” could land a person a 10-year prison sentence.
Anti-LGBTQ rhetoric and policy is nothing new in Uganda or other former British colonies. The British Empire imposed its colonial penal code, including the anti-sodomy law Section 377 on the territories it had claimed. Since former African colonies gained independence in the 1960s, few have repealed the colonial anti-sodomy laws, instead enacting harsh policies including life in prison.
Museveni indicated he “had no objections to the punishments” included in the law, his spokesperson Sandor Walusimbi said in an April 20 tweet, “but on the issue of rehabilitation of the persons who have in the past been engaged in homosexuality but would like to live normal lives again.” If and when the bill is signed into law, Uganda will…
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