Uganda's parliament passes strict anti-gay bill

Ugandas parliament on Tuesday passed sweeping antigay legislation which proposes tough new penalties for samesex relationships following a highly charged and chaotic sessionThe ayes have it parliamentary speaker Annet Anita Among said after the final vote adding that the bill passed in record timeLegislators amended significant portions of the original draft law with all but one speaking against the billHomosexuality is already illegal in the conservative East African nation and it was not immediately clear what new penalties had been agreed uponMP Fox OdoiOywelowo who spoke against the bill and who belongs to President Yoweri Musevenis National Resistance Movement party told AFP that under the final version of the legislation offenders would face life imprisonment or even the death penalty for aggravated offencesThis House will not shy to restrict any right to the extent the House recognises Among saidThe bill will next go to President Museveni who can choose to use his veto or sign it into lawThe legislation enjoys broad public support in Uganda and reaction from civil society has been muted following years of erosion of civic space under Musevenis increasingly authoritarian ruleNevertheless the 78yearold leader has consistently signalled he does not view the issue as a priority and would prefer to maintain good relations with Western donors and investorsDiscussion about the bill in parliament was laced with homophobic rhetoric with lawmakers conflating child sexual abuse with consensual samesex activity between adultsAlso Read International Federation of Journalists castigates Pak over arrest of journalist Living in fear In recent months conspiracy theories accusing shadowy international forces of promoting homosexuality have gained traction on social media in UgandaMuseveni last week referred to gay people as these deviantsHomosexuals are deviations from normal Why Is it by nature or nurture We need to answer these questions he told lawmakersWe need a medical opinion on that We shall discuss it thoroughly he added in a manoeuvre interpreted by analysts and foreign diplomats as a delaying tacticMuseveni has historically taken into account the damage of the bill to Ugandas geopolitics particularly in terms of relations with the West and in terms of donor funding said Kristof Titeca an expert on East African affairs at the University of AntwerpHis suggestion to ask for a medical opinion can be understood in this context a way to put off what is a deeply contentious political issue Titeca told AFPOn Saturday Ugandas attorney general Kiryowa Kiwanuka told the parliamentary committee scrutinising the bill that existing colonialera laws adequately provided for an offenceFrank Mugisha executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda a leading gay rights organisation whose operations were suspended by the authorities last year told AFP earlier this month he had already been inundated with calls from LGBTQ people over the new billCommunity members are living in fear he saidLast week police said they had arrested six men for practising homosexuality in the southern lakeside town of JinjaAnother six men were arrested on the same charge on Sunday according to policeUganda is notorious for intolerance of homosexuality which was criminalised under colonialera lawsBut since independence from Britain in 1962 there has never been a conviction for consensual samesex activityIn 2014 Ugandan lawmakers passed a bill that called for life in prison for people caught having gay sexThe legislation sparked international condemnation with some Western nations freezing or redirecting millions of dollars of government aid in response before a court later struck down the law on a technicalityThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever