US Secretary of State Blinken denounces Uganda’s new ‘Kill the Gays’ bill
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is publicly denouncing Uganda's latest Anti-Homosexuality legislation, which is being called a "Kill the Gays" bill for its capital punishment penalty for "aggravated homosexuality."
The legislation passed in a nearly-unanimous vote and now heads to Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's desk.
"The Anti-Homosexuality Act passed by the Ugandan Parliament yesterday would undermine fundamental human rights of all Ugandans and could reverse gains in the fight against HIV/AIDS. We urge the Ugandan Government to strongly reconsider the implementation of this legislation," Secretary Blinken said via Twitter Wednesday morning.
Uganda, a far-right religious country has a long history of targeting and marginalizing its LGBTQ citizens, including passing a modified "Kill the Gays" bill that was signed into law in 2014, only to be overturned in court on a technicality. That law was drafted and promoted with the aid of American far-right evangelicals.
Ugandan lawmakers on Tuesday passed legislation that makes being LGBTQ illegal, proscribes the death penalty for certain same-sex acts, and decades or life in prison for identifying as LGBTQ. It also requires anyone with knowledge of another person being LGBTQ or engaging in same-sex acts to be reported to the government.
"All but two of the 389 legislators voted late on Tuesday for the hardline anti-homosexuality bill, which introduces capital and life imprisonment sentences for gay sex and 'recruitment, promotion and funding' of same-sex 'activities'," The Guardian reports.
“A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality and is liable, on conviction to suffer death,” the bill states.
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a statement warned: "If the bill is signed into law, it will render LGBTIQ+ people in Uganda criminals simply for existing, for being who they are. It could provide carte blanche for the systematic violation of nearly all of their human rights and serve to incite people against each other."
One of the two Ugandan Members of Parliament who voted against the bill, Fox Odoi-Oywelowo, calls it "ill-conceived," and says parts are "unconstitutional."
He says it "reverses the gains registered in the fight against gender-based violence and criminalises individuals instead of conduct that contravenes all known legal norms.”
President Museveni, who signed into law a modified version of the 2014 "Kill the Gays" bill, will now have to decide if he wants to sign this version as well.