UGANDAN PRESIDENT RETURNS ANTI-LGBTQ+ ACT

Michael K. Lavers of The Washington Blade, Courtesy of The National LGBT Media Association

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni on April 20 sent his country’s Anti-Homosexuality Act back to Parliament for additional consideration before he signs it.

Chapter Four Uganda Executive Director Nicholas Opiyo during a panel that took place at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in D.C. on April 10 noted the measure would impose a “mandatory” death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” and “anybody who is convicted of being engaged in same-sex relations” would face life in prison.

The bill would also punish the “promotion, recruitment and funding” of LGBTQ-specific activities in Uganda with up to 10 years in prison. Any “person who ‘holds out as a lesbian, gay, transgender, a queer or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female’” would also face up to 10 years in prison. Opiyo also noted the measure’s provision that would require Ugandans to report LGBTQ-specific activities to authorities would create “a moral police force.”

Ugandan MPs passed the Anti-Homosexuality Act last month.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the independent U.N. expert on LGBTQ and intersex issues, are among those who are sharply criticized the measure.

The Monitor, a Uganda newspaper, on April 20 reported Museveni and lawmakers from his National Resistance Movement party “resolved to return the Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2023, to the Committee on Legal and Parliamentary Affairs where deeper scrutiny and revisions will be made before the it is considered for assent.”

Museveni, according to the Monitor, praised lawmakers “for having rejected international pressure and shielded Uganda’s moral fabric during the passing of the bill.”

Deputy Attorney General Jackson Kafuuzi reportedly raised concerns about the bill’s reporting requirement during the meeting with Museveni. The Monitor further reported other lawmakers raised the prospect of “rehabilitation” of those convicted under the law.

Sexual Minorities Uganda Executive Director Frank Mugisha in a tweet described Museveni’s decision not to sign the bill as “progress.”

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