UGANDA: MORE ANTI GAY LAWS ON THE CARD

Uganda seems intent on outlawing any support for gays and lesbians as news emerges of another anti-gay law in the works.

According to Reuters, the new piece of legislation has been drafted to bar non-governmental organisations (NGOs) from “promoting homosexuality.”

The bill, which would also bar NGOs from engaging in politics, is reportedly being studied by the Cabinet before it is introduced in Parliament.

While the notion of “promoting” homosexuality is nonsensical, the proposed law could be used to target organisations that lobby for gay and lesbian equality and organisations that provide vital HIV related services and information to marginalised sexual minorities.

It would in effect silence supporters of the gay and lesbian community, which is already oppressed by a raft of extreme provisions that outlaw homosexuality with life imprisonment.

The latest proposed law appears to be aimed at fulfilling a 2012 promise by Uganda’s Minister for Ethics and Integrity, Simon Lokodo, to ban NGOs that campaign for the human rights of gays and lesbians.

In an interview with journalist and photographer Rachel Adams, Lokodo said that LGBTI rights NGOs were “going around implanting in the minds of small children and persons below 18 attitudes of perverted, disoriented feelings in their sexual expressions”.

He claimed that these NGOs were raising funds from overseas for these purposes under the “guise of promoting humanitarian concerns,” which is why he asked the Ministry of Internal Affairs to ban these organisations.

Earlier this month, Ugandan police raided an American-funded HIV clinic in Kampala on the basis that it was “recruiting” gay people. Police spokesperson Fred Enanga claimed that the centre “was carrying out recruitment and training of young males in unnatural sexual acts.”

In February, Uganda’s President Museveni sparked international outrage when he signed the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill – one of the harshest anti-gay laws in the world.