The Obama administration will take additional steps against Uganda for their enactment of an anti-LGBT law, including restricting entry to the U.S. by Ugandan officials involved in anti-LGBT human rights abuses.
National Security Council spokesperson Caitlin Hayden announced Thursday the additional measures, building upon a series of cuts in aid to the African nation announced earlier this year.
“As President Obama has stated, the Government of Uganda’s enactment of the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) runs counter to universal human rights and complicates our bilateral relationship. We announced in April a series of initial responses, and we have since considered how further to reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity,” Hayden said in a statement.
“Today, we are announcing several additional steps. Specifically, the Department of State is taking measures to prevent entry into the United States by certain Ugandan officials involved in serious human rights abuses, including against LGBT individuals. In addition, the United States will take steps, consistent with current authorities, to prevent entry into the United States by Ugandans who are found responsible for significant public corruption,” Hayden continued. ” We are also discontinuing or redirecting funds for certain additional programs involving the Ugandan Police Force, Ministry of Health, and National Public Health Institute, and cancelling plans to hold a U.S. military-sponsored aviation exercise in Uganda.”
According to the White House, such cuts include a $2.4 million program in support for the Uganda Police Force community-policing program. Financial aid supporting the Ministry of Health’s central headquarters staff, including salaries and travel expenses, will also be shifted, but so as to avoid negatively affecting health care workers and direct service providers in Uganda.
Earlier this year, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the Anti-Homosexuality Act further enhancing penalties against homosexuality, prompting international condemnation and criticism from Obama himself. Violators of the law face a 14-year prison sentence for a second conviction, and up to life in prison for repeat offenses. Obama had encouraged Museveni not to sign the bill, and White House press secretary Jay Carney described to the day the bill was signed as a “sad day for Uganda.” A recent report published by Ugandan activists details an increase in violence against LGBT Ugandans as well as loses of property, homes and income.
“None of these steps diminishes our commitment to providing development and humanitarian support for the Ugandan people, or our partnership with the Ugandan government to counter the murderous Lord’s Resistance Army and improve security in Africa,” Hayden continued. “We will seek to advance these interests even as we continue—in Uganda and around the world—to oppose discriminatory practices and champion human rights for all.”
Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin sent a letter dated June 2 to President Obama urging him to take immediate and concrete steps to hold Uganda accountable. According to Ty Cobb, HRC’s director of global engagement, today’s announcement sends a clear message that the U.S. “will not tolerate foreign governments engaging in state-sponsored acts of homophobia and transphobia against their own people.”
“We must put all world leaders on notice that such efforts have no place in the 21st century, and there will be severe consequences for engaging in them,” Cobb said in a statement. “This creates an important precedent for leaders and governments considering implementing similar laws. It is important that the Administration continues to review our diplomatic relationship with Uganda, as well as with other nations such as Nigeria and Brunei, which have also taken disturbing steps backwards.”
Judy Shepard, the mother of gay rights icon Matthew Shepard and co-founder of the foundation named in his honor, has been named one of 19 recipients of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.
The honorees were recognized by President Joe Biden during a special ceremony at the White House this afternoon.
The Presidential Medal of Freedom is the United States' highest civilian honor. It is presented to individuals who have made "exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public, or private endeavors," according to a White House press release.
One Million Moms is accusing the Hilton hotel chain of attempting to "glamorize sin" for portraying people wearing gender-nonconforming attire and including a shot of a same-sex couple in one of its advertisements.
The commercial features hotel heiress Paris Hilton walking through a Hilton hotel lobby wearing a pink dress and carrying her dog.
Throughout the lobby, everyone -- men and women, including several celebrities and influencers -- are dressed in pink and have blond hair or wigs, repeating some of Paris's trademark catchphrases as they snap selfies, scroll social media, and preen in mirrors -- actions that are "on brand" with the heiress's public persona.
Uganda's Constitutional Court upheld the bulk of Uganda's controversial Anti-Homosexuality Act, rejecting a petition seeking to overturn the law in its entirety.
The five-judge bench did strike down some components of the law as violations of the country's constitution, including the right to health and privacy.
They also struck down sections of the law allowing for the prosecution of Ugandans who fail to inform on others, including friends and neighbors, for committing homosexual acts; punishing those who allow their premises to be used to commit homosexuality; and criminalizing the transmission of a "terminal illness" through same-sex activity.
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