Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has signed some of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, the speaker of parliament said, defying international pressure.
The bill includes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality’ which includes sex with a minor, having sex while HIV positive and incest.
The bill criminalizes sex education for the gay community and makes it illegal not to expose what it calls perpetrators of aggravated homosexuality to the police. It calls for “rehabilitation”– widely discredited conversion therapy – for gay offenders.
Museveni sent the bill back to parliament for revisions earlier this year. The latest version of the bill passed earlier this month.
Uganda’s longtime president has already faced extensive criticism from Western governments, including the US, over the law.
A similarly homophobic law was struck down by the courts in 2014.
The speaker of the parliament Anita Annet Among celebrated the bill’s signing, saying parliament had “answered the cries of our people.”
“I thank His Excellency, the president, for his steadfast action in the interest of Uganda. With a lot of humility, I thank my colleagues the Members of Parliament for withstanding all the pressure from bullies and doomsday conspiracy theorists in the interest of the country,” she added.
