Uganda lawmakers to revive “Kill the Gays” bill

Next week a Ugandan Parliamentary Committee will be debating murder – legal killing by their government – the law will give power to Uganda to commit genocide of a minority via legislation. Despite rumors that the opposition Parties in Uganda had succeeded in preventing a vote on the controversial Anti Homosexuality Bill (AHB) – better known as the “Kill the Gays” bill, it is now reported that it will indeed be one of a few bills that members of Parliament on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee are set to debate when the House resumes business next week, during what could be termed a “lame duck session.”
Tabled in Parliament in 2009, by its author David Bahati, known for his homophobia and overt hate for homosexuals and lesbians, the latter masked by the right wing evangelical version of Christianity, the AHB seeks to entrench the criminalization of homosexuality, with death penalties for “repeat offenders/ aggravated homosexuality” and prison terms for gays and lesbians including those who fail to report them, beyond the current broader law “acts committed against the order of nature.”
A few days ago, Congressman Barney Frank introduced legislation in Congress for law preventing further US AID to Uganda. Introduced by way of an amendment in the House Financial Services Committee, Frank said in a statement on Tuesday the amendment received unanimous backing from the legislators” although most votes in the committee have broken along party lines.”
Highlighting Uganda as one of the countries where the persecution of gays is high, Frank said the committee now urges the Treasury to advocate that governments receiving assistance from the multilateral development institutions do not engage in gross violations of human rights.
While the U.S. and the United Nations has come out declaring criminalization of homosexuality as a gross violation of human rights, Bahati in his discussions with me asserts that “Uganda does not consider homosexuality a human right” and that as “a sovereign country Uganda has every right to criminalize homosexuality and provide harsh penalties.”
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