Uganda’s new anti-gay law will let gay men “decide to be stupid”
“[President Museveni] wants the law back in the house but now says if two consenting adults go into their room and decide to be stupid, let them be.”
— Ugandan lawmaker Medard Bitekyerezo, speaking with the Reuters news agency. Lawmakers in Uganda plan to reintroduce the country’s anti-gay law, which was declared invalid last month on a technicality in Uganda’s Constitutional Court. The new version of the law will be watered down from its prior state, which punished sexual acts with life imprisonment, focusing less on what happens if “two consenting adults go into their room” and instead concentrating on removing the promotion of homosexuality. “What [Museveni] said he doesn’t want, and which we must even increase the penalties, is recruitment of children and exploiting financially vulnerable youths.” Uganda’s penal code already punishes homosexuality with up to 14 years in prison and lawmakers have vowed to pass the newest version of the anti-gay law as soon as possible.
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