Uganda to criminalize homosexuality

On Thursday, One day to the World coming out day Uganda announced his plans to resurrect the anti-gay bill wich will impose the death penalty to homosexuals, saying the legislation will curb the rise of unnatural sex in the country.

“Homosexuality is not natural to Ugandans, but there has been a massive recruitment by gay people in schools, and especially among the youth, where they are promoting the falsehood that people are born like that,” Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo told Reuters. “Our current penal law is limited. It only criminalizes the act. We want it made clear that anyone who is even involved in promotion and recruitment has to be criminalized. Those that do grave acts will be given the death sentence.”

Known as the”kill the gays” bill, It was introduced in 2014 to the parliament of Uganda and was struck down by Uganda’s constitutional court because of technicality but it was rooted back in 2009 when the first tentative of Anti-gay bill came up. Today the Ugandan government is ready to re-introduce the bill within weeks.

Uganda is already one of the African countries difficult to live in if you are homosexual. In 2016, 33 countries out of 54 outlawed homosexuality from imprisonment to the death penalty. Today Somalia, Mauritania, northern Nigeria, and Sudan are the countries that recognize the death penalty for same-sex acts.If the bill passes in Uganda it will make Uganda the fifth country on the list.

Uganda faced worldwide condemnation after the original “Kill the Gays” bill was signed into law in 2014. The U.S. reduced aid imposed visa restrictions and canceled joint military exercises. The World Bank, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands also suspended or redirected aid. However, Lokodo said they are prepared for any negative response.

Simon Lokodo, Ugandan Minister of Ethics and Integrity(Former Roman Catholic Priest)

“It is a concern,” he said. “But we are ready. We don’t like blackmailing. Much as we know that this is going to irritate our supporters in budget and governance, we can’t just bend our heads and bow before people who want to impose a culture which is foreign to us.”

In 2014 the Anglican church of Uganda showed his position and said to have recommended the parliament to remove the death penalty and make the previsions less severe. In his response to the letter from Archbishops of Canterbury and York, Archibishop Stanley Ntagali claimed that homosexuality to be sexual confusion and brokenness,” The church is a safe place for individuals, who are confused about their sexuality or struggling with sexual brokenness, to seek help and healing”.

Churches stood against homosexuality and others remained in silence but activities of human rights for minorities rights claim the American Pastor Scott Lively, a 56 years old man, to be behind the anti-gay bill since 2009. He is said to have cultivated ties to influential politicians and religious leaders at the forefront of the nation’s anti-gay crusade. In the video published by Mother Jones, Lively calls homosexuality a disease and says that a group from western come to recruit children into homosexuality ” They are looking other people to be able to prey upon”.

In 2015, when Pope Francis visited Uganda, many LGTB activists hoped to receive support from the Pope at the moment where homosexuals were being persecuted. However, He did not address directly any message about though, in the statement he made, it was seen an appeal against any kind of discrimination” as member’s of God family, we are to assist one another, to protect one another”