Uganda’s Parliament recently passed a controversial law that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ, making it the first country to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer. The new legislation gives authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. Human Rights Watch reports that more than 30 African countries, including Uganda, have already banned same-sex relations. However, the new law goes further by banning the identification as an LGBTQ person altogether.
Supporters of the new law claim that it is needed to punish a broader array of LGBTQ activities, which they say threaten traditional values in the conservative and religious East African nation. The law not only prohibits same-sex intercourse but also bans promoting and abetting homosexuality, as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality. Violations under the law draw steep penalties, including death for “aggravated homosexuality” and life in prison for gay sex.
- Advertisement -
Ugandan lawmakers who supported the legislation say that it is necessary to protect the future of children and the sovereignty of the nation. They assert that nobody should blackmail or intimidate Uganda into allowing LGBTQ rights, despite the criticism from Western countries and human rights groups.
The new law will be sent to President Yoweri Museveni to be signed into law. Museveni has not commented on the current proposal, but he has long opposed LGBTQ rights and signed an anti-LGBTQ law in 2013 that Western countries condemned before a domestic court struck it down on procedural grounds.
Recently, Ugandan authorities have been cracking down on LGBTQ individuals after religious leaders and politicians alleged that students were being recruited into homosexuality in schools. This month, authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in the eastern Ugandan district of Jinja over accusations of “grooming young girls into unnatural sex practices.” She was subsequently charged with gross indecency and is in prison awaiting trial. The police have also arrested six people accused of running a network that was “actively involved in the grooming of young boys into acts of sodomy.”
The new law represents a significant setback for LGBTQ rights in Uganda, and human rights groups have condemned it as an attack on human rights and a death sentence for queer Ugandans. As the legislation awaits the president’s signature, it remains to be seen how it will be enforced and what impact it will have on LGBTQ Ugandans.
