Uganda’s parliament on Thursday passed legislation criminalizing LGBTQ identification, with lawmakers saying the current ban on same-sex relationships doesn’t go far enough.
Anti-LGBTQ sentiment is deeply ingrained in the highly conservative and religious East African country, where same-sex relationships are punishable by up to life in prison, the report said. Reuters.
More than 30 African countries ban same-sex relationships, according to Human Rights Watch, but Uganda’s law, if passed, could be the first law to criminalize self-identification as gay, bisexual, transgender and homosexual.
Uganda’s bill says it aims to combat “threats to the traditional heterosexual family”. Reuters.
The law punishes up to 10 years in prison for anyone who “identifies as homosexual, transgender, queer, or any other sexual or gender identity that is contrary to the binary categories of male and female.” It also criminalizes “propaganda” of homosexuality, as well as “complicity” and “conspiracy” to enter into homosexual relationships.
“One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for who they are, and further violates the rights to privacy and freedom of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda,” said Oriem Nyeko, researcher from Uganda. Human Rights Watch.
Author: Cheyenne Louise
Source: CM Jornal
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