Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni enacted one of the world’s toughest anti-gay laws, which calls for life imprisonment for anyone convicted of homosexuality, on May 29.
Including the East African nation, where a colonial-era law makes sexual activity “against the order of nature” a criminal act, more than 30 of Africa’s 54 countries already had laws criminalizing homosexuality.
Those found to violate the law face life imprisonment.
The new Ugandan legislation, called the “Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023,” imposes a death penalty in some cases, and imprisonment for promoting homosexuality, among multiple other provisions.
Activists and various government officials abroad condemned what is seen as the world’s toughest anti-gay measure.
Uganda’s state house shared a photo on Twitter of Museveni signing the legislation. The 78-year-old president has previously called homosexuality a “deviation from normal” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure.
‘Aggravated Homosexuality’
The new law imposes the death penalty for what it calls “aggravated homosexuality,” which applies in multiple circumstances including same-sex relations with a minor or a relative or dependent of the person.
It also includes cases when the offender is a “serial offender,” which the law defines as “a person who has previous convictions for the offence of homosexuality or related offences.”
“Aggravated homosexuality” also applies where a person committing an act of homosexuality infects another person with a terminal illness, such as HIV/AIDS. It additionally applies to a person committing an act of homosexuality on another person who subsequently suffers a disability or mental illness as a result. In such cases, the person committing such acts would face the death penalty.
The death penalty would also apply when the sexual act is committed against another person “by means of threats, force, fear of bodily harm, duress or undue influence, intimidation of any kind, or through misrepresentation as to the nature of the act.”
Lastly, the death penalty applies when same-sex relations involve a person in a more vulnerable position. Per the law, this means the sexual act is being committed against those who are under the authority of the other person or against a person with a disability, mental illness, advanced age, or in a state of “unconsciousness or … an altered state of consciousness … that impaired his or her judgment.”
For all of the above, the law says that consent to a sexual act “shall not constitute a defence.”
If a person is convicted of “attempted aggravated homosexuality,” they face a prison term of up to 14 years.
