Uganda’s president has doubled down the country’s draconian new anti-LGBT+ penalties, saying they are needed to prevent gay people from “recruiting” others.
Yoweri Museveni this week signed one of the world’s toughest anti-LGBTQ laws, including the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality,” drawing international condemnation – including from US president Joe Biden – and risking sanctions from aid donors.
Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further.
“The signing is finished, nobody will move us,” Museveni said in a statement issued by his office.
The new law stipulates capital punishment for “serial offenders” and for having same-sex relations with a person with a disability. It also decrees a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.
Museveni said he had been persuaded by experts that homosexuality is not genetic, describing it instead as “psychological disorientation.
“The problem is that, yes, you are disorientated. You have got a problem to yourself. Now, don’t try to recruit others. If you try to recruit people into a disorientation, then we go for you. We punish you,” he said.
“But secondly, if you violently grab some children and you rape them and so on and so forth, we kill you. And that one I totally support, and I will support.”
The new law also imposes a life sentence for same-sex intercourse and a 20-year sentence for promotion of homosexuality.
Firms including media and non-governmental organisations that knowingly promote LGBT+ activity will also incur harsh fines.
Homosexuality was already illegal in Uganda, and LGBT+ people face ostracism and harassment by security forces.
Countries or areas that have the death penalty on their statute books for consensual gay sex include Brunei, Iran, Mauritania, Saudi Arabia, Uganda, Yemen and some northern states of Nigeria. Another 29 nations impose maximum penalties for same-sex sexual relations of between 10 years and life imprisonment.
Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.
