Mixed Signals From Uganda as Officials Advocate, then Disavow, Death Penalty For LGBTQ Conduct

Facing a poten­tial back­lash from major aid donors, Uganda’s pres­i­dent has attempt­ed to dis­tance his gov­ern­ment from leg­isla­tive efforts to rein­tro­duce a bill that would make con­sen­su­al same-sex acts pun­ish­able by the death penal­ty and crim­i­nal­ize ​“pro­mo­tion and recruit­ment” of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty. The so-called ​“Kill the Gays” bill pre­vi­ous­ly pro­mot­ed by gov­ern­ment offi­cials would great­ly expand the pun­ish­ment of homo­sex­u­al­i­ty under Ugandan law. The pro­posed bill is a more dra­con­ian ver­sion of a law struck down in 2014 by Uganda’s Constitutional Court after Parliamentary lead­ers had ille­gal­ly secured pas­sage of the bill in a vote con­duct­ed with­out a quorum. 

On October 10, 2019, Uganda’s Ethics and Integrity Minister Simon Lokodo, had announced plans to adopt the anti-gay mea­sure with­in weeks to halt what he described as a rise in ​“unnat­ur­al sex” in the coun­try. ​“Our cur­rent penal law is lim­it­ed. It only crim­i­nal­izes the act,” Lokodo said. ​“We want it made clear that any­one who is even involved in pro­mo­tion and recruit­ment has to be crim­i­nal­ized. Those that do grave acts will be giv­en the death sen­tence.” President Yoweri Museveni ini­tial­ly expressed sup­port for the bill and Lokodo said the admin­is­tra­tion had ​“mobi­lized [mem­bers of Parliament] in big num­bers.” However, after inter­na­tion­al aid donors includ­ing the European Union, the United States, the World Bank, and the Global Fund said they were ​“mon­i­tor­ing” the leg­is­la­tion and expressed sup­port for the rights of LGBTQ peo­ple, Museveni’s government retreated.

Use of the death penal­ty as a tool of anti-gay dis­crim­i­na­tion has raised glob­al human rights con­cerns. In October 2017, the United Nations Human Rights Council adopt­ed a res­o­lu­tion con­demn­ing the use of the death penal­ty for apos­ta­sy, blas­phe­my, adul­tery, and con­sen­su­al same-sex rela­tions. In March 2019, the Kingdom of Brunei decreed that adul­tery and homo­sex­u­al sex were crim­i­nal acts pun­ish­able by death by ston­ing, but it backed down from the mea­sure after a sig­nif­i­cant inter­na­tion­al back­lash. On November 3, South Dakota plans to exe­cute Charles Rhines despite evi­dence that jurors con­sid­ered his homo­sex­u­al­i­ty dur­ing their delib­er­a­tions and some vot­ed to sen­tence him to death because impos­ing a life sen­tence in an all-male prison ​“would be send­ing him where he wants to go.” 

A spokesper­son for President Museveni told Reuters on October 14 that the gov­ern­ment had ​“no plans … to intro­duce a law like that.” ​“We have the penal code that already han­dles issues of unnat­ur­al sex­u­al behav­ior so there is no law com­ing up,” senior press sec­re­tary Don Wanyama said.

LGBTQ activists and human rights groups raised con­cerns that the leg­is­la­tion would increase hate crimes against the LGBTQ com­mu­ni­ty. Human Rights Watch linked the October 4 mur­der of an employ­ee of a legal aid orga­ni­za­tion that sup­port­ed LGBTQ peo­ple to the hys­te­ria sur­round­ing the ​“Kill the Gays” bill. ​“In the wake of the hor­rif­ic mur­der of Brian Wasswa, the Ugandan gov­ern­ment should be mak­ing it crys­tal clear that vio­lence is nev­er accept­able, regard­less of one’s sex­u­al ori­en­ta­tion or gen­der iden­ti­ty,” Human Rights Watch Africa researcher Oryem Nyeko said. ​“Instead, a gov­ern­ment min­is­ter charged with ethics and integri­ty is threat­en­ing to have gay peo­ple killed at the hands of the state.”

“Bringing back anti-gay leg­is­la­tion would invari­ably lead to a spike in dis­crim­i­na­tion and atroc­i­ties,” said Zahra Mohamed of the Toronto-based char­i­ty Stephen Lewis Foundation. Pepe Julian Onziema of Sexual Minorities Uganda, which is an alliance of LGBTQ orga­ni­za­tions, said, ​“When the law was intro­duced last time, it whipped up homo­pho­bic sen­ti­ment and hate crimes. Hundreds of LGBT+ peo­ple have been forced to leave the coun­try as refugees and more will fol­low if this law is enact­ed. It will crim­i­nal­ize us from even advo­cat­ed (sic) for LGBT+ rights, let alone sup­port­ing and pro­tect­ing sexual minorities.” 

According to Onziema, three gay men and a trans­gen­der woman were killed in anti-LGBTQ hate crimes this year. ​“Violence against us has esca­lat­ed in recent months, count­less com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers have fled, and I fear it will only get worse,” said Kasha Jacquelin Nabagesera, founder of the Uganda LGBT Community, an advo­ca­cy group. ​“We urgent­ly need sup­port from the inter­na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty if we are to stand up against the witch hunt being launched against us.”

Foreign gov­ern­ments have crit­i­cized the mea­sure, and in 2014, sev­er­al coun­tries and the World Bank cut aid to Uganda in response to the orig­i­nal ver­sion of the bill. Sweden, Norway, Denmark, and the Netherlands sus­pend­ed or redi­rect­ed aid in 2014, and the U.S. reduced aid, imposed visa restric­tions, and can­celled planned mil­i­tary exer­cis­es. Prior to the president’s state­ment that that the bill would not go for­ward, Lokodo had said his coun­try was pre­pared for a pos­si­ble back­lash. ​“It is a con­cern,” he said. ​“But we are ready. We don’t like black­mail­ing. Much as we know that this is going to irri­tate our sup­port­ers 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.” 

The U.S. gov­ern­ment has con­demned the pro­posed leg­is­la­tion. A State Department spokesper­son told the Washington Blade that the ​“U.S. gov­ern­ment firm­ly oppos­es crim­i­nal­iza­tion of LGBTI indi­vid­u­als,” and ​“stands with Uganda’s LGBTI com­mu­ni­ty and Ugandans of all back­grounds and beliefs to defend the dig­ni­ty of all citizens.”