Uganda to jail people who intify as LGBTQ one of world's most anti-gay laws : NPR

Contents:

• UGANDA ANTI-HOMOSEXUALY BILL: LIFE PRISON FOR SAYG YOU'RE GAY
• UGANDA TO JAIL PEOPLE WHO INTIFY AS LGBTQ ONE OF WORLD'S MOST ANTI-GAY LAWS
• UGANDA'S ANTI-GAY LAW: HOW RTRICTED ARE LGBTQ RIGHTS AI?
• NO, UGANDA IS NOT MAKG ILLEGAL TO BE GAY (AGA)
• UGANDA PASSED ONE OF THE WORLD’S HARSHT ANTI-GAY LAWS. LGBTQ PEOPLE SCRIBE LIVG THERE AS ‘HELL’
• A NEW ANTI-GAY LAW UGANDA LLS FOR LIFE PRISON FOR THOSE WHO ARE NVICTED
• ‘WE WILL HUNT YOU’: UGANDANS FLEE AHEAD OF HARSH ANTI-GAY LAW

UGANDA ANTI-HOMOSEXUALY BILL: LIFE PRISON FOR SAYG YOU'RE GAY

Media ptn, Watch: Cheers and applse as Uganda pass anti-gay billPeople who intify as gay Uganda risk life prison after parliament passed a new bill to crack down on homosexual activi. People are receivg lls that 'if you don't give me money, I will report that you are gay, '" they bill is one of the tought piec of anti-gay legislatn Ai.

Homosexual acts are already illegal Uganda but this bill troduc many new crimal well as makg merely intifyg as gay illegal for the first time, iends, fay and members of the muny would have a duty to report dividuals same-sex relatnships to the was passed wh wispread support Uganda's parliament on Tuday eveng. The bill's backers say they are tryg to protect children but Ms Byagaba said: "Whether you're heterosexual or homosexual, the ernment and parliament should troduce laws, or at least implement existg laws that protect all children - boys, girls om filement.

The fal versn has yet to be officially published but elements discsed parliament clu: A person who is nvicted of groomg or traffickg children for purpos of engagg them homosexual activi fac life prisonIndividuals or stutns which support or fund LGBT rights' activi or anisatns, or publish, broadst and distribute pro-gay media material and lerature, also face prosecutn and imprisonmentMedia groups, journalists and publishers face prosecutn and imprisonment for publishg, broadstg, distributn of any ntent that advot for gay rights or "promot homosexualy"Death penalty for what is scribed as "aggravated homosexualy", that is sexual abe of a child, a person wh disabily or vulnerable people, or s where a victim of homosexual asslt is fected wh a life-long illnsProperty owners also face risk of beg jailed if their premis are ed as a "brothel" for homosexual acts or any other sexual mori rights' activiA small group of Ugandan MPs on a mtee sctisg the bill disagreed wh s premise. They argue the offenc seeks to crimalise are already vered the untry's Penal Co 2014, Uganda's nstutnal urt nullified another act which had toughened laws agast the LGBT clud makg illegal to promote and fund LGBT groups and activi, as well as reeratg that homosexual acts should be punished by life imprisonment, and was wily nmned by Wtern urt led that the legislatn be revoked bee had been passed by parliament whout the required quom. ” Like many gay people stgglg to survive a untry that has ed Covid-19 as an exce to clamp down on human rights, Ssenyonga is ed to arrts and before the panmic Uganda was labelled the worst place to be gay after s parliament proposed the ath penalty for some homosexual acts.

UGANDA TO JAIL PEOPLE WHO INTIFY AS LGBTQ ONE OF WORLD'S MOST ANTI-GAY LAWS

The nstutnal urt annulled the law 2014, but secury agenci ntue to hound gay people – relyg on rmatn om muny vigilant to attack and smoke them out of plac they thought were safe.

UGANDA'S ANTI-GAY LAW: HOW RTRICTED ARE LGBTQ RIGHTS AI?

But memori are not as easily first sign of danger, he says, was seeg green boots through a gap unr the people were still bed at the shelter, which has given Ugandan gay people a home durg lockdown.

Everybody was expected to go back to a lovg home, and people who are unable are punished, ” Owamparo Rights Watch says Uganda is g the ver of ronavis to margalise and target gay people. Image source, Getty ImagImage ptn, LGBT Ugandan refuge who fled the untry due to persecutn, pictured here 2018Ugandan officials have banned a proment LGBT rights group a major setback for the muny Mori Uganda (Smug) has been orred to shut down wh "immediate effect" for not registerg properly wh mpaign group cried the orr as a "clear wch hunt" by the ernment agast LGBT mori face wispread persecutn Uganda, where anti-gay and transphobic views are relatnships are illegal Uganda, where they n be punished by up to life prison for mtg "unnatural offenc. "This is a clear wch hunt rooted systematic homophobia, fuelled by anti-gay and anti-genr movements, " said Smug's director Frank Mugisha, who is a gay Ugandan activist.

"Print Yoweri Meveni, who has been office sce 1986, has ma homophobic ments the past - cludg a 2016 CNN terview when he lled gay people "disgtg. "Although there are no laws specifilly crimalisg beg transgenr Uganda, trans people are regularly prosecuted for other offenc cludg "personatn" (false reprentatn), acrdg to reports piled by rights s tablishment almost two s ago, Smug has mpaigned for the rights of LGBT people Uganda by promotg accs to health servic and supportg members of the LGBT muny to live has also taken legal actn to protect gay people om hostily, cludg 2010 when succsfully petned a Ugandan judge to orr a newspaper to stop publishg the nam and photographs of gay Ugandan men unr the headle "hang them" group said several of s members had been attacked or harassed as a rult of the article - cludg one woman who was almost killed when her neighbours began throwg ston at her the time, Ugandan policians were preparg to bate whether or not to troduce the ath penalty for same-sex relatnships - a legislative amendment that attracted wispread ternatnal nmnatn before eventually beg dropped.

NO, UGANDA IS NOT MAKG ILLEGAL TO BE GAY (AGA)

"The policians are g the LGBT muny as a spegoat to ga support and w vot and is fuellg homophobia, " Smug's director Frank Mugisha told the Thomson Rters ptn, "They've empowered the people to do anythg towards people who are nocent"More on this story. It first gaed ternatnal notoriety 2009 when David Bahati, a member of the Ugandan parliament whose views were heavily fluenced by Amerin evangelils, troduced the now famo “Kill the Gays” bill. Unr the guise of “protectg the tradnal fay, ” the bill advoted for the ath penalty for “aggravated homosexualy” and the imprisonment of anyone “promotg” or failg to report homosexualy.

However, even though the law self fell, the spir lived on, as the bill had enjoyed wi-spread support Uganda, where 93 percent of Ugandans were opposed to homosexualy. For Christian fundamentalists, Uganda—an impoverished untry reverg om years of rptn and vlence—provid a blank nvas to project their missnary zeal and strong homophobia.

UGANDA PASSED ONE OF THE WORLD’S HARSHT ANTI-GAY LAWS. LGBTQ PEOPLE SCRIBE LIVG THERE AS ‘HELL’

Sylvia Tamale observ, “ is not homosexualy that is un-Ain but the laws that crimalized such relatns…what is alien to the ntent is legalized homophobia, exported to Ai by the imperialists where there had been difference to and even tolerance of same-sex relatns.

On the heels of Wasswa’s murr, the recent threat of retroducg the “Kill the Gays” bill om member of Parliament (MP) Jam Buturo and other MPs, and the arrts of over one hundred spected homosexuals at an LGBTQ iendly bar, tapulted Uganda back to the ternatnal spotlight, signalg an latn of vlence and reprsn toward the Ugandan LGBTQ muny. Stemmg homophobia Uganda will be difficult; is fully entrenched Ugandan society and polics and is an easy way of unifyg an otherwise ethnilly and polilly divid populatn. This is not about the Wt exportg homosexualy to Ai or a “gay agenda”; is stead about right-wg Christian evangelils om the Wt g homophobia as a tool to tablish a foothold the Ain ntent, and lol Ugandan policians and “men of the cloth” profg om this narrative.

A NEW ANTI-GAY LAW UGANDA LLS FOR LIFE PRISON FOR THOSE WHO ARE NVICTED

” The recent very public disagreement between the US envoy to Zambia and the Zambian ernment over the sentencg of two Zambian gay men to fifteen years prison is a se pot. He was ially agast homosexualy but has sce evolved his stance, and recently stated that he “do not agree wh homosexuals, but rpects their rights. San Dicklch-Nelson is Profsor of Government at Frankl & Marshall College and -creator of the F&M Global Barometer of Gay Rights® & the F&M Global Barometer of Transgenr Rights®.

Ugandan lawmakers on Tuday approved some of the world’s harsht anti-gay laws, makg some crim punishable by ath and imposg up to 20 years prison for people intifyg as LGBTQ+. Acrdg to the bill, the ath penalty n be voked for s volvg “aggravated homosexualy” – a broad term ed the legislatn to scribe sex acts mted whout nsent or unr durs, agast children, people wh mental or physil disabili, by a “serial offenr, ” or volvg ct. “A person who ms the offense of aggravated homosexualy and is liable, on nvictn to suffer ath, ” read the amendments, which were prented by the chairperson for legal and parliamentary affairs Roba Rwakoojo.

Opposn lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa troduced the Anti Homosexualy Bill 2023 to parliament, sayg aims to “protect our church culture; the legal, relig and tradnal fay valu of Ugandans om the acts that are likely to promote sexual promiscuy this untry. Kenyan gays and lbians and others supportg their e wear masks to prerve their anonymy as they stage a rare prott agast Uganda's tough stance agast homosexualy and solidary wh their unterparts there, outsi the Uganda High Commissn Nairobi, Kenya, 2014.

‘WE WILL HUNT YOU’: UGANDANS FLEE AHEAD OF HARSH ANTI-GAY LAW

Same-sex acts were already unlawful Uganda, but on Tuday night, lawmakers voted to ban intifyg as LGBTQ+, or the so-lled promotn of gay inty.

In a packed chamber, lawmakers overwhelmgly voted favor of legislatn lled the anti-homosexualy bill, wh only two of the nearly 400 reprentativ votg agast . " "If signed to law by the print, will renr lbian, gay and bisexual people Uganda crimals simply for existg, for beg who they are, " he said. Qu Karala, 29, a member of the lbian, gay, bisexual, transgenr, tersex and queer (LGBTQ) muny and a sgle mother of one pos for a picture wh rabow lours at the offic of Rella Women's Empowerment Program, for LGBTQ rights advocy, after a Rters terview Kulambiro suburb of Kampala, Uganda April 4, 2023....

* In 2017, Chad crimalised same-sex acts what the Internatnal Lbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Associatn (ILGA) lled "a worryg example of legal regrsn the regn". In 2014, I played a small part makg sure that anti-LGBTQI forc Uganda do not succeed wrg their hate to law: I was one of the petners the se that succsfully overturned the famo anti-gay law. The Ugandan ernment will not sign this anti-gay legislatn to law part bee was troduced by an outgog legislator and approved by a now-dissolved parliament.