Uganda Revives “Kill the Gays” Bill
African country previously backtracked on similar legislation after global outcry
BY MATT TRACY
Lawmakers in Uganda’s
Parliament are again
planning to introduce
legislation making it punishable
by death for individuals to
engage in same-sex conduct.
The latest legislative push to impose
death sentences for gay and
lesbian relations in the East African
nation comes fi ve years after
the passage of a bill that originally
called for the death penalty but
was amended to instead require
life sentences.
The initial 2014 measure, which
became known as the “Kill the
Gays” bill, was only downgraded
to life imprisonment after the United
States responded by imposing
sanctions and reducing certain
foreign aid to Uganda and European
nations took swift action to
also cut off aid.
Shortly after the life imprisonment
legislation was enacted,
the nation’s Constitutional Court
threw the law out.
The bill is resurging under apparent
hysteria over messages of
LGBTQ tolerance in schools is being
exploited by homophobic political
leaders.
“Homosexuality is not natural
to Ugandans, but there has been a
massive recruitment by gay people
in schools, and especially among
the youth, where they are promoting
the falsehood that people are
born like that,” Simon Lokodo, who
is the ethics and integrity minister,
told Reuters .
As is often seen in nations with
strict laws penalizing LGBTQ
rights, Uganda is also targeting
those who step up as allies to gay
folks.
Lokodo further griped that
current law, which includes antisodomy
sanctions introduced in
Uganda during British colonial
rule, “is limited,” saying, “We want
it made clear that anyone who is
even involved in promotion and recruitment
has to be criminalized.
Those that do grave acts will be
given the death sentence.”
Lokodo noted that lawmakers in
Uganda hope to pass the bill before
the end of the year. The quick pace
with which legislators are moving
could be a sign they hope to rush
the bill through before international
pressure again forces changes
to it.
It is not clear whether the Trump
administration, which has repeatedly
chipped away at LGBTQ rights
since 2017, would move to penalize
Uganda for the proposal.
President Donald Trump publicly
unveiled a plan to eradicate the
criminalization of homosexuality
around the world, but his administration
HUMAN RIGHTS
has simultaneously scaled
back the State Department’s approach
toward human rights
abroad.
And there have been elected offi
cials in the US — in fact, here in
New York — who praised Uganda
leaders as they fi nalized their original
anti-sodomy crackdown fi ve
years ago.
Bronx Councilmember Fernando
Cabrera shocked the city and
raised eyebrows in 2014 when he
traveled to Uganda after the passage
of the bill imposing life sentences
for same-sex relations.
While there, he posted a YouTube
video — since deleted, but not before
it was copied — calling the
Ugandan government “godly” and
praising its leaders for standing up
against what he falsely described
as warnings by the US to cut off
aid unless the nation embraced
marriage equality.
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