After amendments make it worse, Uganda Parliament okays Anti-Homosexuality Bill again
Next the measure returns to President Museveni for his assent
Uganda’s Parliament voted nearly unanimously last night in favor of the amended Anti-Homosexuality Bill, with only one member of parliament objecting.
The amendments “make this version even worse than the first one! The diatribe against the ‘West’ has just started. The ball is once again in Museveni’s court. Over to him!” tweeted Adrian Jjuuko, leader of the LGBTQ legal aid group Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum (HRAPF).
Agence France-Presse reported that under the amended bill, which now returns to President Yoweri Museveni for his assent:
Identifying as gay would not be criminalised, but “engaging in acts of homosexuality” would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment,
Although Museveni had advised lawmakers to delete a provision making “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence, lawmakers rejected that move, meaning that repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.
The LGBTQ rights advocacy coalition Convening For Equality (CFE) reported on Twitter:
There was a lot of fearmongering and hateful rhetoric during the debate with one lawmaker comparing LGBTQ persons to cult leader Kibwetere who murdered thousands in the early 2000s in Western Uganda.
Rhetoric on “family values” and demonization of LGBTQ persons and identities as Western was also prominent during the discussion in the lead up to the bill’s passage.
Agence France-Presse reported:
The revamped bill says that “a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex, does not commit the offence of homosexuality”.
The earlier version also required Ugandans to report suspected homosexual activity to the police or face six months imprisonment.
Lawmakers agreed to amend that provision on Tuesday after Museveni last month said it risked creating “conflicts in society.”
Instead, the reporting requirement now pertains only to suspected sexual offences against children and vulnerable people, with the penalty raised to five years in jail.
According to the new draft, anyone who “knowingly promotes homosexuality” faces up to 20 years in jail — a provision left unchanged from the original bill.
Organisations found guilty of encouraging same-sex activity could face a 10-year ban.
Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a leading gay rights organisation whose operations were suspended by the authorities last year, said the passage of the bill posed a grave risk to LGBTQ people.
“There’s a contradiction because the legislation says you can be gay but you shouldn’t say anything about it,” he told AFP.
Furthermore, the near-unanimous approval of the bill by lawmakers “shows you how extreme and homophobic the MPs are and puts LGBTQ people in even more danger.”
Economic repercussions
The bill will now be sent to Museveni, who can again choose to use his veto or sign it into law.
If he were to return the bill to parliament a third time, a two-thirds super-majority of lawmakers could override his veto, forcing the bill through.
The legislation enjoys broad public support in Uganda and reaction from civil society has been muted following years of erosion of civic space under Museveni’s increasingly authoritarian rule.
The European Parliament last month voted to condemn the bill and asked EU states to pressure Museveni into not implementing it, warning that relations with Kampala were at stake.
The White House has also warned the Ugandan government of possible economic repercussions if the legislation takes effect.
Last week the US embassy wrote to delegates working on funding proposals to tackle the AIDS epidemic informing them of delays “in light of the recent developments with the potential signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Act and how it could impact our ability to provide services and assistance”.
Homosexuality was criminalised in Uganda under colonial laws, but there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity since independence from Britain in 1962.
The revamped bill says that “a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual, who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex, does not commit the offence of homosexuality”.
The advocacy blog O-blog-dee reported:
There was one courageous Parliamentarian MP ODOI OYWELOWO FOX of West Budama North East County, NRM, who stood up and presented the Minority Report calling for the rejection of the Bill in its entirety based on the contradiction that one cannot exist as LGBT and then be accused of a crime when trying to enjoy one’s basic freedoms. MP Fox noted that the ACT is unconstitutional and breaches Uganda’s obligation to other legal instruments as well as all the freedom and rights of LGBTI people.
That would be the ultimate circularity: to make it a crime to be “suspected” of something even if there is no evidence that they committed an act. In practice, it was sometimes like that in the US under McCarthyism in the 1950s.