Uganda Passes Bill Criminalizing People Who Identify as LGBTQ+

Open and out LGBTQ+ travelers can officially cross Uganda off their travel list… well, if they were even considering it. On Tuesday, Ugandan lawmakers passed some of the world’s harshest anti-gay laws, making some crimes punishable by death and imposing up to 20 years in prison for people identifying as LGBTQ+. It targets a variety of things and includes a ban on promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality, according to Reuters.

Even before this legislation was passed, the country hands out life sentences to members of the LGBTQ+ community for having same-sex relations. We’re definitely not cool lumping consensual sex between two adults into the same law as people who commit, as the law calls it, “aggravated homosexuality” – a broad term used in the law to describe sex acts committed without consent or under duress, against children, people with mental or physical disabilities, by a “serial offender,” or involving incest. 

Anti-gay lawmaker Asuman Basalirwa introduced the Anti Homosexuality Bill 2023 to parliament to “protect our culture; the legal, religious and traditional family values of Ugandans from the acts that are likely to promote sexual promiscuity in this country.”

LGBTQ+ advocate Frank Mugisha told Reuters that the law could lead to mass arrests of LGBTQ+ people and mob violence against them, leaving people scared of being outed. “We will go to all courts in Uganda. If need be, we will go to the international court as well, but we definitely have to go to court and challenge this law,” said Mugisha. 

More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations, but this is the first to outlaw identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer, according to Human Rights Watch.