You may recall that earlier this year, Uganda’s parliament passed one of the most repressive and discriminatory laws against homosexuality in the world. However, in August, Uganda’s Constitutional Court threw it out because the parliament lacked a quorum at the time of the vote. On Tuesday, the author of this monstrosity announced that he intends to revive it.
David Bahati, the MP who has been working since 2009 to get the “Anti-Homosexuality Act” passed into law, told deputy speaker Jacob Oulyanah that he intends to reintroduce the bill during the current session. This was possible because the Constitutional Court didn’t rule on the merits of the law, but simply determined that too few lawmakers were present when it was passed. Indeed, just days after the court’s decision, lawmakers were already gathering signatures as part of an effort to bring it back. In what appears to be a harbinger, Oulyanah indicated that the bill has the support of 254 MPs–a supermajority of the 376-member chamber. According to Uganda’s leading newspaper, the Daily Monitor, several MPs actually tried to make the Anti-Homosexuality Act the first order of business, ahead of the budget. Oulyanah turned the request down. However, according to Pink News, Oulyanah urged MPs to actually attend when the bill finally does come to the floor.
While President Yoweri Museveni signed the original bill into law earlier this year, he has asked that the revived bill be amended so that it won’t target consenting homosexuals. Rather, according to MP Medard Bitekyerezo, who like Bahati is a member of Museveni’s long-dominant National Resistance Movement, it will focus on those who want to “recruit our children into homosexuality.” It says a lot about how backwards attitudes are in Uganda–and indeed, in much of Africa–that Bitekyerezo is echoing a smear against gays that has long since been debunked here. Those of you old enough to remember will recall that in the 1980s, many a religious right activist proclaimed, “Gays don’t reproduce–they recruit!” According to Gay Star News, Museveni’s call for a “go slow” approach to the supposed recruitment of people into the gay lifestyle doesn’t sit well with some elements of the NRM. Apparently those who disagree with this approach have gotten loud enough that Museveni can’t be assured of winning the NRM’s nomination for president in 2016.
I haven’t been able to track down any copies of the revised bill. However, if Bitekyerezo’s sentiments are any indication, it won’t be much of an improvement over the bill that passed earlier this year. ?The offense of homosexuality,? as well as attempting to marry someone of the same sex, was punishable by up to life in prison. ?Promotion of homosexuality? was punishable by up to seven years in prison. It also made ?the promotion or recognition? of homosexuality illegal. Originally, the law made ?aggravated homosexuality??defined as among other things, a second instance of committing ?the offense of homosexuality,? or any instance where the offender was HIV-positive or had sex with a minor?punishable by death. That provision was removed under intense international pressure. The original version would have also made it a crime not to report gay people to the authorities, which would have made it all but impossible for gays to live openly in the country. That provision was also removed from the final bill. See a pattern here? It looks like that with each revision, Bahati is trying to make what he thinks would be the bare minimum changes to stave off international condemnation. It didn’t work with the original version; the ink had barely dried on Museveni’s signature when the United States, the Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, and the World Bank either suspended or slashed their aid to Uganda. It probably won’t work this time either. After all, if we take Museveni at his word, you still have a bill that sounds a lot like Russia’s “gay propaganda” law.
I first learned about this story when my good friend Rachel Tabachnick of Talk2Action shared this on her Facebook feed. When I saw this, I wondered why Bahati would even consider resurrecting this bill given the international hackles it raised. The most benign explanation I can think of is that Bahati must think that he can slip this bill through with the world’s eyes on Ukraine and Iraq. Indeed, no mainstream media outlets have picked this up. Well, he and the American preachers who helped push this bill are in for a surprise.
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Darrell Lucus, also known as Christian Dem in NC on Daily Kos, is a radical-lefty Jesus-lover who has been blogging for change for a decade. Follow him on Twitter @DarrellLucus or connect with him
