New Uganda law sets death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’

Special to CosmicTribune.com, March 23, 2023

Uganda’s parliament by an overwhelming margin passed a bill on March 21 which criminalizes homosexuality and includes the death penalty for defendants who commit acts of “aggravated homosexuality” against minors or those with disabilites.

The bill passed with 387 out of 389 legislators voting in favor.

President Yoweri Museveniis, who is expected to sign the bill into law, said: “The western countries should stop wasting the time of humanity by trying to impose their practices on other people.”

Christianity is the predominant religion in Uganda. According to the 2014 census, over 84 percent of the population was Christian, while about 14 percent of the population adhered to Islam.

The capital offense of “aggravated homosexuality” is defined as same-sex relations with a person “below the age of eighteen years,” or someone who has a “disability.”

According to the law, aggravated homosexuality also occurs if the “offender is a person living with HIV,” is a “parent or guardian of the person against whom the offense is committed,” has “authority or control over the person against whom the offense is committed,” uses drugs to “overpower” a victim, or is a “serial offender.”

Reuters noted that one reason the new offense of “aggravated homosexuality” was created was because Uganda has experienced a rash of students who were allegedly “recruited into homosexuality in schools.”

This month, authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in the eastern district of Jinja over accusations of “grooming of young girls into unnatural sex practices,” the Reuters report said. She was subsequently charged with gross indecency and is in prison awaiting trial.

Uganda police said on March 20 they had arrested six people accused of running a network that was “actively involved in the grooming of young boys into acts of sodomy.”

Breitbart’s John Hayward noted: “Same-sex relationships are already illegal in Uganda — and in more than half of African nations — although post-colonial Uganda has never actually convicted anyone for prohibited same-sex activity. The new law would increase the penalties for committing homosexual acts and criminalize ‘promoting and abetting homosexuality’ in addition to actively engaging in it.

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