Reviving Anti-gay Bill

Uganda’s cultural values

When President Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Bill before the glare of local and international media on Feb. 24, 2014, its proponents like Lokodo said it was aimed at “upholding and protecting Uganda’s cultural values against Western culture.”

The President, flanked by ministers, MPs and senior health practitioners, said people who engage in same-sex relations are mercenaries recruiting young people into gay activities to get money.

“Homosexuals are nurtured but not natured. No study has shown that one can be a homosexual purely by nature. Since nurture is the cause, that is why I have agreed to sign the Bill into law,” Museveni said.

“I encourage the U.S government to help us by working with our scientists to study whether; indeed there are people who are born homosexual. When that is proved, we can review this legislation,” the president added.

But those against the law like Mugisha and Mwenda said the law was harsh and against fundamental human rights considering that it prescribed tough penalties including life imprisonment for same sex marriage and aggravated homosexuality. The law also imposed a seven year jail term for other homosexuality-related offences.

Human rights lawyers said sexual acts between consenting adults should not be criminalized.

Criminalization of these acts contravenes established international and regional human rights standards as well as the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda in that it unfairly limits the fundamental rights of people who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans-gender, intersex and others, they said.

The lawyers further argued that criminalization of same-sex conduct has the effect of driving LGBTQ persons to the margins of society, denying them access to opportunities and services and rendering them susceptible to abuse and discrimination from the majority groups in society.

On Aug.1, 2014, the anti-homosexuality law which Rebecca Kadaga, the Speaker of Parliament, said at the time was a “Christmas gift” to Ugandans was annulled for having been passed by Parliament without the required quorum of two thirds of all MPs.

Perhaps the government had also underestimated the backlash the law attracted from around the world. By the time Uganda’s Constitutional Court overturned the law on a technicality six months later; the United States had reduced its aid, imposed visa restrictions and cancelled military exercises with the Uganda People’s Defence Forces. The World Bank, Sweden, Norway, Denmark and The Netherlands also suspended aid.

No one knows what could happen this time. But the sensitive tourism sector is always the first victim, officials in local tourism firms say.

Lilly Ajarova, the executive director of the Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) is usually outspoken on anything that threatens the local tourism sector but when The Independent asked her whether the re-introduction of the anti-gay bill could impact negatively the fledgling tourism industry, she referred The Independent to the recent government statement issued by the Uganda Media Centre which said Uganda is not planning to introduce any anti-homosexuality legislation.

Still, Lokodo appears not bothered. He told Thomson Reuters Foundation early this month that Uganda is prepared for any backlash.

“It’s a concern but we are ready.” “We don’t like blackmail. Much as we know that this is going to irritate our supportive partners in budget and governance, we can’t just bend our heads and bow before people who want to impose a culture which is foreign to us.”

Meanwhile, Mwenda told The Independent that the Western World needs to give Ugandan society time to deal with the homosexuality issue.

“This is our conversation as Ugandans. Those (human rights) organizations’ interference makes the situation worse,” he says, “Don’t be the champions of our rights in Uganda. Ugandan intellectuals, gay activists and civic leaders will unite to argue for openness.”

Mwenda also says Western society should look at their history before they judge Uganda on the issue of homosexuality.

“Don’t expect change in our society to happen today because cultural change takes time. In Europe, there was a death sentence for homosexuality in the 1950s but then they want us to jump and act like them. It cannot happen that way because culture takes time to evolve.”

“The more we have debate on homosexuality, the more it will promote debate and the more it will create tolerance and understanding,” Mwenda said.

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