The president of Uganda, Yoweri Museveni, recently called on Africa to "save the world from homosexuality", suggesting he would sign into law a controversial anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed by parliament last month. In Uganda and abroad, activists are mounting last-ditch efforts to try and stop the legislation.
The bill imposes the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" and life imprisonment for "recruitment, promotion and funding" of same-sex acts.
It has been widely criticised internationally, with the UN high commissioner for human rights urging the president not to sign it.
In Uganda, anti-discrimination activists are calling on the president not to ratify the bill.
Nicholas Opiyo, one of Uganda's top human rights lawyers, told RFI that President Museveni, who has 30 days to sign the bill, is in a difficult position on the issue as he faces potential sanctions from his international partners.
"Museveni has shifted his position a little bit from 2014, when he said that LGBT people were disgusting", Opiyo said.
"Now, he seems mostly preoccupied with what he calls the promotion of homosexual activities. Nonetheless, he has to deal with a constituency that has always highly supported the anti-homosexuality law, but he also has to take into account the view of the rest of the world."
That makes the bill "both a domestic matter and a foreign policy matter", Opiyo points out. "So it's a very difficult position. But my opinion is that Museveni will sign up to this law, though I'm hoping he doesn't."
Opiyo also pointed out the role that conservative American Christian groups have played in promoting anti-LGBTQ+ policies in Uganda.
"Ugandans have no time to care about who you love and what you do in your private life," he told RFI. "There are more pressing issues here.
"Homosexuality in Uganda, and in the whole of Africa is not imported from the West, but the hatred against it definitely is," he said.
Call for travel ban
Stella Nyanzi, a prominent Ugandan human rights advocate who was arrested for insulting Museveni and now lives in exile in Germany, has fiercely criticised the bill on social media.
"I was inside the Constitutional Court when the Anti-Homosexuality Act was annulled in 2014," she wrote on Twitter. "I will celebrate again when Uganda revokes homophobic laws."
In another post, she warned: "Alas, we are witnessing a new wave of exodus and flight from Uganda's homophobia!"
A quorum of 389 out of 529 Ugandan members of parliament (including 55 online) voted for the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (2023). The bill now goes to dictator @KagutaMuseveni for assent by appending his signature. This is a sad day for human rights of LGBTIQA+ people in Uganda! pic.twitter.com/F9u9nkR4i6-- Stella Nyanzi (@drstellanyanzi) March 21, 2023
Another well-known rights activist, Frank Mugisha, shared a petition to the UK parliament calling for a travel ban on Ugandan MPs and clergy who supported the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.
"We call for this travel ban in response to requests by LGBT+ Ugandan activists, who have asked the international community to secure action to stop the Bill and support their human rights," the petition states.
"The Bill now awaits President Museveni's signature. We must discourage him from signing and penalise those who have voted or advocated in favour of the Bill. Travel bans are known to be one effective way of impacting those responsible for tyrannical legislation."
Travel ban on Ugandan MPs and clergy who supported Anti-Homosexuality Bill - Petitions https://t.co/FIWEfEubN2-- Dr. Frank Mugisha (@frankmugisha) April 7, 2023
International condemnation
In Canada protesters gathered outside the parliament in Ontario last week to call on the Canadian government and private sector to apply pressure to Museveni not to sign the bill.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has condemned the bill "in the absolute strongest terms", and urged other world leaders to reject it too.
He called on governments around the world, and especially Commonwealth countries, "to come out and clearly condemn this despicable piece of legislation".
If the proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill is adopted, Human Rights Watch wrote in a submission to Ugandan lawmakers, "it would violate multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda's Constitution and international human rights instruments to which Uganda is a party".
According to the campaign group, "the rights at stake include the rights to freedom of expression and association, liberty, privacy, equality, and freedom from discrimination and inhuman and degrading treatment".
All eyes on Museveni
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Museveni's ratification could come any day now.
Earlier this month the Ugandan president called homosexuality a "danger to the procreation of human race", at an international conference in Entebbe hosted by a fundamentalist Christian lobbying group from the US.
Museveni declared that "Africa should provide the lead to save the world from this degeneration and decadence, which is really very dangerous for humanity", The Guardian newspaper reported.
Homosexuality was criminalised in Uganda under colonial-era laws, but since independence from Britain in 1962 there has never been a conviction for consensual same-sex activity.
The 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill is not the first time the Ugandan parliament has attempted to expand criminal penalties for non-heterosexual relationships.
An earlier anti-homosexuality act prompted the US and several European countries to impose sanctions or cut off aid to Uganda when it was ratified in 2014. Uganda's Constitutional Court subsequently struck the law down on procedural grounds.
The parliament passed another bill punishing same-sex relationships in 2021, but Museveni declined to sign it into law.
