Uganda's president has signed an anti-gay bill that punishes gay sex with up to life in prison, a measure likely to send Uganda's beleaguered gay community further underground as the police try to implement it amid fevered anti-gay sentiment across the country.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said the bill was needed because the West is promoting homosexuality in Africa.
 |
| Uganda president Yoweri Museveni |
Nigeria's president similarly signed an anti-gay bill into law just over a month ago, sparking increased violence against gays who already were persecuted in mob attacks.
The Ugandan law calls for first-time offenders to be sentenced to 14 years in jail. It sets life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for "aggravated homosexuality," defined as repeated gay sex between consenting adults and acts involving a minor, a disabled person or where one partner is infected with HIV.
At least six people have already been arrested over alleged homosexual offe
nces and more than a dozen have fled Uganda since lawmakers passed the bill in December, according to a prominent Ugandan gay activist, Pepe Julian Onziema.
Government officials applauded after Museveni affixed his signature. Scientists had written a report which found there is no proven genetic basis for homosexuality, Museveni said, citing it as a reason for signing the bill.
"They should rehabilitate themselves and society should assist them to do so," Museveni said after signing the bill.
Museveni accused "arrogant and careless Western groups" of trying to recruit Ugandan children into homosexuality.
0 comments:
Post a Comment