NEW UGANDAN ANTI-GAY BILL EVEN WORSE

A draft of a new Ugandan anti-gay law intended to replace the previously annulled law has been leaked – and it’s in many ways worse than the original version!

An apparent draft of the Prohibition of Promotion of Unnatural Sexual Practices Bill of 2014 has been posted online and it makes for chilling reading.

Unlike the previous annulled legislation, the draft law, dated 29 October 2014, appears less interested in banning adults having consensual gay sex, and instead focuses on the “inducement” to homosexuality and the “promotion” of homosexuality.

The proposed law would bar using any medium – from print to the internet – to publish anything that would be “likely to facilitate in engaging in unnatural sexual practices.” This could include gay themed films, educational flyers, documentaries, newspapers articles or any form of communication that deals with homosexuality without condemning it.

It also would further outlaw gay dating sites, gay rights groups or organisations, funding for these organisations, knowingly renting premises to sexually active gay people and the solemnising of same-sex marriages.

The penalties are up to seven years in prison. “Accomplices” face five years in jail and seven years for a second offence.

The law goes as far as to ban anyone who is convicted under it from being able to ever adopt, foster or apply for guardianship of a child.

The fact that consensual adult gay sex acts are not criminalised outright in the law holds little comfort for LGBT Ugandans. Gay sex is already illegal, with penalties including life imprisonment, under colonial-era legislation.

The original Anti-Homosexuality Act was annulled by Uganda’s Constitutional Court in August on a technicality. Anti-gay campaigners have vowed to bring a new version of the law to Parliament as soon as possible.

Uganda’s President Museveni has reportedly stated that he would be willing to support new legislation that will ban the “promotion” of homosexuality “to protect our children from homosexuality.”