Uganda Toughens Anti-Homosexuality Legislation

Africa | Uganda | Human Rights March 22, 2023

Uganda has toughened its existing anti-homosexuality legislation, reported some media on March 22, 2023. According to the reports, the parliament there did that on March 21, 2023, by unanimously supporting and passing a bill that will add new criminal penalties to the anti-homosexuality legislation.

More specifically, the bill will criminalise people identifying as homosexuals, as well as a sexual minority. Also, the bill will make homosexuality punishable by up to 10 year-jail term.

If the passed bill is signed by President Yoweri Museveni, it will become a law.

In passing the proposed new law, lawmakers are said to have argued that it was geared towards safeguarding, among others, the traditional heterosexual family model, as well as morality and protection of children in Uganda.

Homosexuality is very unpopular in Africa despite linguistic evidence that suggests that the controversial sexual orientation may have always existed there. Tolerance and wisdom in the past may have made it appear as if it did not exist. In recent years, however, a rather staunch promotion of the sexual orientation including same sex marriage and annual gay parades by some Western countries, as one of their core values, and preaching to the rest of the world to do the same, could have changed the tolerance and wisdom on homosexuality in most African countries. That could have happened as the countries feared that their children and youngsters may be influenced by the Western aggressive global promotional drive of homosexuality and adopt the controversial sexual orientation for non-biological reasons.

It is one thing talking about respecting human rights of homosexuals and quite another talking about encouraging people including kids to become homosexuals. Mixing the two narratives together could lead to a serious backlash. That is probably what we are seeing in Africa.

Furthermore, unpopularity of homosexuality in most African countries could be compelling many politicians in such countries choose keeping a clear distance from it, because supporting it may imply political demise especially in the era of multi-party politics!

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