Joe.My.God. LGBT News
Bloomberg News reports:
Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni signed into law legislation with harsher penalties for LGBTQ people, including death and life-imprisonment sentences. The president “has assented” to the bill, which now becomes law, his office announced in a post on its Twitter account.
Parliament had approved an earlier version of the bill in March, but Museveni returned it to lawmakers to consider changes he proposed. The new document removed provisions that sought to punish people for merely identifying as LGBTQ.
Museveni signed the new law more than eight years after a version of it was quashed by the nation’s court for procedural flaws. As in 2014, the legislation can still be challenged in court.
The New York Times reports:
Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, has said the bill would “damage Uganda’s international reputation.” But Mr. Museveni was unmoved, saying in a video released by the state broadcaster in April that the country had “rejected the pressure from the imperials,” a reference to Western nations.
On Monday, the speaker of Uganda’s Parliament, Anita Annet Among, first announced on Twitter that the president had signed the bill into law. “I thank my colleagues the Members of Parliament for withstanding all the pressure from bullies and doomsday conspiracy theorists in the interest of our country,” she said.
The law, activists said, tramples the rights of L.G.B.T.Q. people and leaves them vulnerable to discrimination and violence. Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the new law calls for far more stringent punishment and broadens the list of offenses.
CNN reports:
Henry Mukiibi, an activist who assists LGBTQ Ugandans, told CNN that he fears people will take the law into their own hands: “I think this is so so horrible. We didn’t expect this – we thought he would be advised against it. We are going to be tortured. I am just scared now about what is next. People have been waiting for the bill to be signed and then they will work on us. We are going to die.”
Civil society groups are already looking to challenge the law. “This is hardly surprising for anyone following the events closely, but it is still deeply concerning that the country is viciously discriminating against its sexual minorities. The battle lines are drawn and the next stage of the contestation will be in a court of law,” Nicholas Opiyo, a prominent human rights lawyer told CNN.
Earlier this month Rachel Maddow delivered an extensive report on the US evangelicals behind Uganda’s “kill the gays” bill.
President @KagutaMuseveni has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023. It now becomes the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023. pic.twitter.com/fDQpmE2W9X
— State House Uganda (@StateHouseUg) May 29, 2023