Uganda signs anti-gay bill into law

Uganda announced Monday that President Yoweri Museveni had signed into law draconian new measures against homosexuality described as among the world’s harshest, prompting condemnation from human rights and LGBQT groups.

The passage of the anti-gay bill comes despite warnings from Uganda’s international partners, including close ally the United States, of repercussions should the controversial proposal become law.

Museveni “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, accompanied by an image of the veteran leader signing a document.

Uganda’s parliament said on Twitter that Museveni had approved a new draft of the legislation that was passed overwhelmingly by lawmakers in the East African nation earlier this month.

MPs had vowed to resist outside pressure over the bill, which they cast as interference in an effort to protect Uganda’s national culture and values from Western immorality.

The amended version said that identifying as gay would not be criminalised but “engaging in acts of homosexuality” would be an offence punishable with life imprisonment.