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Ugandan Parliament Approves Antigay Law Ugandan Parliament Approves Antigay Law
(about 4 hours later)
LONDON — After years of argument that has drawn ferocious condemnation from outsiders like President Obama, the Ugandan Parliament approved legislation on Friday introducing harsher punishment — including life imprisonment —for what the law called “aggravated homosexuality,” news reports said. LONDON — The Ugandan Parliament announced Friday that it had approved legislation imposing harsh penalties on gay people, including life imprisonment for what it called “aggravated homosexuality,” effectively brushing aside previous objections to antigay legislation from outside powers, including President Obama.
The law was not as tough as an initial bill, first mooted in 2009 and later withdrawn, that would have imposed the death sentence in some cases and would have required citizens to report acts of homosexuality within 24 hours. Mr. Obama called that legislation “odious.” But it reflected a broader aversion to homosexuality across Africa that has brought persecution and intolerance in many countries. In addition to prohibiting “any form of sexual relations between persons of the same sex,” the law seemed to echo Russia’s so-called gay propaganda law, criminalizing “the promotion or recognition” of homosexual relations “through or with the support of any government entity in Uganda or any other nongovernmental organization inside or outside the country.”
Homosexuality is illegal in Uganda but David Bahati, a lawmaker who has promoted the antigay legislation, said existing laws needed to be strengthened to prevent Western homosexuals from promoting it among young Ugandans. Specifically, the law — officially titled the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009 — provides for a 14-year jail term for a first conviction and “imprisonment for life for the offense of aggravated homosexuality,” a Parliament announcement said.
“I am officially illegal,” Agence France-Presse quoted a gay activist, Frank Mugisha, as saying when the legislation was approved on Friday. Like legislation in Russia against “gay propaganda,” the new law would criminalize the public promotion of homosexuality, including discussion of the issue by rights groups, news reports said. “The bill aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family,” the announcement said, quoting a Parliament committee.
Agence France-Presse quoted Mr. Bahati as saying the new law represented “victory for Uganda.” There was some doubt, though, about the status of the measure. Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi raised questions about whether Parliament had a quorum of lawmakers present to approve the legislation, which still has to be signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, the announcement said.
“ I am glad the Parliament has voted against evil,” he said. The legislation was not as tough as an initial version of the bill, first put forward in 2009 and later withdrawn, that would have imposed the death sentence in some cases. Mr. Obama called that legislation “odious.” But the vote in Parliament reflected a broader aversion to homosexuality across much of Africa that has brought persecution and intolerance in many countries.
“Because we are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way,” he said. “It is because of those values that members of Parliament passed this bill regardless of what the outside world thinks.” “I am officially illegal,” a gay activist, Frank Mugisha, was quoted by news agencies as saying when the legislation was approved on Friday.
The legislation was promoted in part by the country’s influential evangelical pastors, some of them supported and partly financed by American churches. Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, but David Bahati, a lawmaker who has led the campaign for tougher action, said existing laws needed to be strengthened to prevent Westerners from promoting homosexuality among young Ugandans. The issues raised by the new legislation also became entangled with profound resentment among some Ugandans at pressures by foreign governments and rights groups.
When the bill was re-introduced last year, it deepened tensions in Uganda’s religious and traditional society between advocates and opponents of gay rights. At one point a government minister personally broke up a clandestine gay rights meeting in a hotel, saying homosexuals should face the firing squad. In particular, Western threats to link the future of hundreds of millions of dollars to the question of Uganda’s antigay legislation stirred accusations of Western neocolonialism and double standards.
In 2011 a newspaper published a list of gay people and urged readers and policy makers to “hang them.” Last year, for instance, the opposition leader Kizza Besigye said Western pressure was “misplaced” and “even annoying.”
“There are more obvious, more prevalent and harmful violations of human rights that are glossed over,” Mr. Besigye said. “Their zeal over this matter makes us look at them with cynicism to say the least.”
According to the announcement by Parliament on Friday, a legislative committee said “that there is need to protect the children and youth of Uganda who are vulnerable to sexual abuse and deviations as a result of cultural changes, uncensored information technologies, parentless child development settings and increasing attempts by homosexuals to raise children in homosexual relationships through adoption and foster care.”
But the announcement acknowledged that a handful of lawmakers had opposed the law. “What two consenting adults do in the privacy of their bedroom should not be the business of this Parliament,” two independent legislators, Sam Otada and Fox Odoi, said in a minority report. “It is not right to have the state allowed in the bedrooms of people.”
The legislation was strongly supported by the country’s influential evangelical pastors, some of them backed and partly financed by American churches.
When the bill was reintroduced last year, it deepened tensions within parts of Uganda’s religious and traditional society between advocates and opponents. At one point, a government minister personally broke up a clandestine gay rights meeting in a hotel, saying gay people should face the firing squad.
In 2011, a newspaper published a list of gay people and urged readers and policy makers to “hang them.”