Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has finally signed the controversial anti-homosexuality bill that calls for harsher penalties for LGBTQ people, including death and life-imprisonment sentences, the speaker of the country’s parliament confirmed on Monday, reported The BBC.
Parliament speaker Anita Among was the first to announce the signing of the bill on Twitter.
“I now encourage the duty bearers under the law to execute the mandate bestowed upon them in the Anti-Homosexuality Act. The people of Uganda have spoken, and it is your duty to now enforce the law in a fair, steadfast, and firm manner,” Parliament speaker Anita Among said in a post on Twitter.
The controversial anti-LGBTQ bill imposes the death penalty for so-called aggravated homosexuality, which includes having gay sex when HIV-positive. It also orders upto 20-year of prison sentence for promoting homosexuality.
Under the bill, Ugandans will also be required to report any form of homosexual abuse against children or other vulnerable people to the authorities.
Notably, Uganda along with more than 30 African countries has ruled same-sex relations as being illegal, but the new law goes much further in targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer people.
Ugandan President Museveni, who himself is a strong opponent of LGBTQ rights, had previously sent the original bill, which was passed by the parliament in March, back to lawmakers, asking that they tone down certain provisions.
Earlier this month, parliament passed an amended bill that had some minor changes, while leaving most of the original legislation intact. The amended bill stipulated that merely identifying as LGBTQ is not a crime and revised a measure that obliged people to report homosexual activity to only require reporting when a child is involved.
It is likely that the law will get challenged in court. A similar law was struck down by the Ugandan constitutional court in 2014.
