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Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.
The act would have broadened the criminalisation of same-sex relations in Uganda domestically. It also includes provisions about persons outside of Uganda who are charged with violating the act, asserting that they may be extradited to Uganda for punishment there. The act also includes penalties for individuals, companies, and non-governmental organisations that aid or abet same-sex sexual acts, including conducting a gay marriage. Furthermore, the act enables the Ugandan government to rescind international and regional commitments it deems outside of the interest of the act's provisions.
Same-sex relationships have been illegal in Uganda since colonial rule – as they are in many African countries, especially former British colonies – and before this Act was passed, they were punishable by incarceration in prison for up to 14 years. The act was introduced as the Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009 by Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati (National Resistance Movement) on 14 October 2009. A special motion to introduce the bill was passed a month after a two-day conference was held in which three Christians from the United States asserted that homosexuality is a direct threat to the cohesion of African families. The international community, however, assailed the law, accusing the Ugandan government of encouraging violence against LGBT people with the law. The United States imposed economic sanctions against Uganda in June 2014 in response to the law, the World Bank indefinitely postponed a $90 million aid loan to Uganda and the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway halted aid to Uganda in opposition to the law; the Ugandan government defended the bill and rejected condemnation of it, with the country's authorities stating President Museveni wanted "to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation". Several sources have noted that the act has exacerbated both the endemic homophobia in Uganda and the associated discussions about it. Others more specifically claim that such legislative actions are the result of politicized homophobia, a rhetorical tool used to further the interests of political leaders in the form of gaining popularity and/or distracting from corrupt behaviour.
Parliament passed similar bills in 2021 and 2023: the Sexual Offenses Bill, 2019, passed in May 2021 and vetoed by President Yoweri Museveni and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023.
Some gay rights advocates have claimed that around 500,000 people in Uganda or 1.4 percent of its population are gay. The Ugandan government, however, has characterized the 500,000 people claim as an exaggeration designed to increase the popularity of homosexuality, and the BBC in 2009 asserted the impossibility of determining the actual number of gay people living in Uganda.
Existing laws in Uganda criminalise homosexual behavior with prison sentences, some of which can be as long as 14 years. These laws were introduced during the colonial era in order to eliminate what the colonial authorities deemed "unnatural sex". In some areas, male homosexuality was age-stratified, similar to ancient Greece where warriors purchased boys as brides, common when women were not available, or manifested as fleeting encounters as in prostitution. Human rights groups have demanded reform of those laws and decriminalisation of homosexuality and asserted that the laws reinforce prejudice and promote violence against LGBT people.
According to a reporter in Africa, "Africans see homosexuality as being both un-African and un-Christian". Thirty-eight of 53 African nations criminalise homosexuality in some way. A 2013 poll found that the overwhelming majority of Ugandans disapproved of homosexuality. In sub-Saharan Africa, only the governments of South Africa and Namibia support gay rights. But South Africa's support of LGBT rights did not prevent the rape and murder of LGBT rights activist Eudy Simelane in 2008. Human rights groups have criticized the police for being inactive and apathetic. Like the conditions in many other African nations, gays in Uganda face an atmosphere of physical abuse, vandalism of their property, blackmail, death threats, and "corrective rape".
From 5 to 8 March 2009, a workshop organised by the Family Life Network, led by Ugandan Stephen Langa, and entitled "Seminar on Exposing the Homosexuals' Agenda" took place in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The workshop featured three US evangelical Christians: Scott Lively, an author who has written several books opposing homosexuality; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to heal homosexuality; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, an organisation devoted to promoting "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ" and which was funded by restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A. The theme of the conference, according to The New York Times, was the "gay agenda": "how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how 'the gay movement is an evil institution' whose goal is 'to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity' ". Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia, was in attendance and reported on the conference. Lively asserted in his workshops that legalizing homosexuality would be akin to accepting child molestation and bestiality. He also claimed that gays threaten society by causing higher divorce rates, child abuse, and HIV transmission. He said that US homosexuals are out to recruit young people into homosexual lifestyles. According to Kaoma, one of the thousands of Ugandans in attendance announced during the conference, "[The parliament] feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and ... takes into account the international gay agenda.... Right now there is a proposal that a new law be drafted."
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Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014
The Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 was an act passed by the Parliament of Uganda on 20 December 2013, which prohibited sexual relations between persons of the same sex. The act was previously called the "Kill the Gays bill" in the western mainstream media due to death penalty clauses proposed in the original version, but the penalty was later amended to life imprisonment. The bill was signed into law by the President of Uganda Yoweri Museveni on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the act invalid on procedural grounds.
The act would have broadened the criminalisation of same-sex relations in Uganda domestically. It also includes provisions about persons outside of Uganda who are charged with violating the act, asserting that they may be extradited to Uganda for punishment there. The act also includes penalties for individuals, companies, and non-governmental organisations that aid or abet same-sex sexual acts, including conducting a gay marriage. Furthermore, the act enables the Ugandan government to rescind international and regional commitments it deems outside of the interest of the act's provisions.
Same-sex relationships have been illegal in Uganda since colonial rule – as they are in many African countries, especially former British colonies – and before this Act was passed, they were punishable by incarceration in prison for up to 14 years. The act was introduced as the Anti Homosexuality Bill, 2009 by Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati (National Resistance Movement) on 14 October 2009. A special motion to introduce the bill was passed a month after a two-day conference was held in which three Christians from the United States asserted that homosexuality is a direct threat to the cohesion of African families. The international community, however, assailed the law, accusing the Ugandan government of encouraging violence against LGBT people with the law. The United States imposed economic sanctions against Uganda in June 2014 in response to the law, the World Bank indefinitely postponed a $90 million aid loan to Uganda and the governments of Denmark, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway halted aid to Uganda in opposition to the law; the Ugandan government defended the bill and rejected condemnation of it, with the country's authorities stating President Museveni wanted "to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation". Several sources have noted that the act has exacerbated both the endemic homophobia in Uganda and the associated discussions about it. Others more specifically claim that such legislative actions are the result of politicized homophobia, a rhetorical tool used to further the interests of political leaders in the form of gaining popularity and/or distracting from corrupt behaviour.
Parliament passed similar bills in 2021 and 2023: the Sexual Offenses Bill, 2019, passed in May 2021 and vetoed by President Yoweri Museveni and the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023.
Some gay rights advocates have claimed that around 500,000 people in Uganda or 1.4 percent of its population are gay. The Ugandan government, however, has characterized the 500,000 people claim as an exaggeration designed to increase the popularity of homosexuality, and the BBC in 2009 asserted the impossibility of determining the actual number of gay people living in Uganda.
Existing laws in Uganda criminalise homosexual behavior with prison sentences, some of which can be as long as 14 years. These laws were introduced during the colonial era in order to eliminate what the colonial authorities deemed "unnatural sex". In some areas, male homosexuality was age-stratified, similar to ancient Greece where warriors purchased boys as brides, common when women were not available, or manifested as fleeting encounters as in prostitution. Human rights groups have demanded reform of those laws and decriminalisation of homosexuality and asserted that the laws reinforce prejudice and promote violence against LGBT people.
According to a reporter in Africa, "Africans see homosexuality as being both un-African and un-Christian". Thirty-eight of 53 African nations criminalise homosexuality in some way. A 2013 poll found that the overwhelming majority of Ugandans disapproved of homosexuality. In sub-Saharan Africa, only the governments of South Africa and Namibia support gay rights. But South Africa's support of LGBT rights did not prevent the rape and murder of LGBT rights activist Eudy Simelane in 2008. Human rights groups have criticized the police for being inactive and apathetic. Like the conditions in many other African nations, gays in Uganda face an atmosphere of physical abuse, vandalism of their property, blackmail, death threats, and "corrective rape".
From 5 to 8 March 2009, a workshop organised by the Family Life Network, led by Ugandan Stephen Langa, and entitled "Seminar on Exposing the Homosexuals' Agenda" took place in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The workshop featured three US evangelical Christians: Scott Lively, an author who has written several books opposing homosexuality; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to heal homosexuality; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, an organisation devoted to promoting "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ" and which was funded by restaurant chain Chick-Fil-A. The theme of the conference, according to The New York Times, was the "gay agenda": "how to make gay people straight, how gay men often sodomized teenage boys and how 'the gay movement is an evil institution' whose goal is 'to defeat the marriage-based society and replace it with a culture of sexual promiscuity' ". Kapya Kaoma, an Anglican priest from Zambia, was in attendance and reported on the conference. Lively asserted in his workshops that legalizing homosexuality would be akin to accepting child molestation and bestiality. He also claimed that gays threaten society by causing higher divorce rates, child abuse, and HIV transmission. He said that US homosexuals are out to recruit young people into homosexual lifestyles. According to Kaoma, one of the thousands of Ugandans in attendance announced during the conference, "[The parliament] feels it is necessary to draft a new law that deals comprehensively with the issue of homosexuality and ... takes into account the international gay agenda.... Right now there is a proposal that a new law be drafted."