Uganda called again this week to hunt down the gay. Although homosexual relations were already illegal in the African country, the approval last Tuesday of a new law represents a twist to the persecution suffered by the LGTBI community for more than a decade. The new norm toughens the punishments and establishes the death penalty – as is currently the case in Somalia, Sudan and Nigeria in Africa – for the crime of “aggravated homosexuality” for gays, lesbians and transsexuals.
According to the text, the maximum punishment will be executed when the aggressor is the victim’s parent or guardian, when the latter is under 14 years of age or has a mental disability. For the gay community, the law seeks to erase them from the map. 73% of the 500 Ugandan parliamentarians voted in favor of a law that also proposes life imprisonment for those guilty of perpetrating the “offence of homosexuality” and sentences of between 10 and 20 years for journalists who report on homosexuality, activists who defend the gay cause or even landlords who rent their houses to homosexual people.
The project still has to be ratified by the Ugandan president, Yoweri Museveni, who could exercise the right of veto. It doesn’t seem likely that he will. The 78-year-old president and almost four decades in power called gays “deviant” and criticized the West for wanting to impose his vision on the issue.
The Minister of Public Works and Transport, Francis Ecweru, made the government’s position clear this week during the debate in Parliament. “Homosexuality is a threat to the human species and what we are discussing is the preservation of the human species.”
From the West, the new crossing in Uganda raised cries of outrage. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk called the new law “outrageous,” “devastating” and “one of the worst of its kind in the world,” and the US Secretary of State Mr Antony Blinken said the rule “undermines the fundamental rights of all Ugandans and could reverse progress in the fight against HIV/AIDS”.
Human rights organizations also closed ranks. Tigere Chagutah, a representative for Amnesty International, called the rule “deeply repressive” and warned that it “will institutionalize discrimination, hatred and prejudice against LGBTI people”, and Oryem Nyeko, a researcher for HRW in Uganda, underscored the pettiness of the law. “One of the most extreme characteristics is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are.”
Frank Mugisha, one of the few Ugandan activists who dares to speak out, denounced a law that “attempts to eliminate the entire existence of any Ugandan homosexual”, and activist Kasha Nabagesera denounced that it will provoke a witch hunt. “The owners cannot rent their houses to the collective, our parents are obliged to denounce their children for being homosexual…”.
