Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed into law one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”, drawing Western criticism and risking sanctions from aid donors.
Same-sex relationships were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further.
It stipulates the death penalty for “serial offenders” against the law and transmission of a terminal illness such as HIV/AIDS through gay sex. It also carries a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.
“The President of Uganda today legalized state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia,” said Clare Byarugaba, a Ugandan human rights activist. “It is a very dark and sad day for the LGBTQ community, our allies and all of Uganda.”
She and other activists have vowed to challenge the law in court, which Museveni was shown signing at his desk with a gold pen in a photo posted on Twitter by the country’s presidency. The 78-year-old leader called homosexuality a “deviation from the normal” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure.
Museveni sent the original bill passed in March back to lawmakers, asking them to tone down some provisions. But its final approval was not viewed with suspicion in a conservative country where anti-LGBTQ attitudes have hardened in recent years, in part due to campaigning by Western evangelical religious groups.
Uganda receives billions of dollars in foreign aid every year and now faces sanctions.
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 put Uganda’s anti-HIV fight ” at grave risk”.
Source: CNN Brasil
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