Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni in May signed into law a controversial anti-gay bill, his office and the country’s parliament said, introducing draconian measures against homosexuality that have been described as among the world’s harshest.
Museveni “has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023. It now becomes the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023,” a statement posted on the presidency’s official Twitter account said.
Uganda’s parliament on Twitter said Museveni had assented a new draft of the legislation approved by lawmakers earlier this month.
The president had called on MPs to rework the bill, though most of the hardline provisions that caused outcry in the West were retained.
The amended version clarified that identifying as gay would not be criminalised, but “engaging in acts of homosexuality” would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment.
Although Museveni had advised lawmakers to delete a provision making “aggravated homosexuality” a capital offence, lawmakers rejected that move, meaning that repeat offenders could be sentenced to death.
The move immediately drew condemnation by the United States, European Union and international human rights groups, but enjoys broad public support in Uganda.
In a joint statement, the U.S.’s flagship HIV/AIDS programme PEPFAR, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS) said the law put Uganda’s anti-HIV fight “in grave jeopardy”. (
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