UGANDA: Lawmakers To Pass Anti-Gay Bill As "Christmas Gift" To Nation

Via Reuters:

Drafters of a revised anti-gay law want parliament to pass it in time to be a "Christmas gift" for Ugandans, a lawmaker said on Friday, after a controversial earlier version was quashed because of legal technicalities. Legislation passed by parliament almost a year ago, which would have punished gay sex with long prison terms, provoked a storm of international protest and led some donor countries to withhold aid. A constitutional court overturned the law in August. Abdu Latif Ssebagala, a member of a parliamentary committee formed in September to draft a new version, said it had finished the bill and was ready to present it to parliament for debate. In August, President Yoweri Museveni said he wanted the law amended to remove penalties for consenting adults. Ssebagala said however the new version still punished gay sex among consenting adults. In October the president wrote in a newspaper that re-introducing the law risked triggering a trade boycott by the West. Analysts say Museveni - expected to run for re-election in 2016 - is walking a tightrope, trying to appease his conservative domestic constituency while wary of alienating donors who finance about 20 percent of Uganda's budget.

In addition to punishing consensual sex, the new bill makes it illegal to rent homes to LGBT Ugandans.

The new bill includes language which potentially criminalises any landlord or owner or renter of a property where an “unnatural act [gay sex]” takes place. It criminalises anyone who “leases or subleases, uses or allows to be used any premises for the purpose of engaging in unnatural sexual practices.” Jonathan Cooper, director of the Human Dignity Trust, said: “Under this Bill, if a landlord rents accommodation to a gay man or lesbian knowing that they may engage in intimacy in their home, that landlord will face the prospect of a seven year prison sentence. Why would that landlord take the risk? Gay men and lesbians already renting accommodation risk being evicted. If this Bill becomes law, the tyranny against the LGBTI community in Uganda continues. This wanton persecution must stop.”

UGANDA: President Backs Off Anti-Gay Laws, Fears Trade Boycott By West

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni yesterday said that his nation risks a trade boycott by western corporations if the anti-gays laws struck down earlier this year on a technicality were to be reinstated.

In a commentary on Friday in the state-run New Vision daily, Museveni said he was not worried by the aid cuts that followed the initial law, but warned of a trade boycott by companies in the West. He said re-issuing the anti-gay law would likely antagonize consumers in the West, risking access to a rich export market. "To carelessly and needlessly open unnecessary wars with useful customers is irresponsible to say the least," he wrote. Homosexuality remains taboo in Uganda and many socially conservative African societies where some religious groups have branded it a corrupting Western import. The original passage of the anti-gay law was celebrated with a rally in the city center against homosexuals, which Museveni attended and where he was thanked for signing the bill by religious leaders from various denominations. Donors, who finance about 20 percent of Uganda's annual budget, lauded its annulment, and some have resumed lending. The U.S. described the court's decision as "an important step in the right direction for human rights" in Uganda.

Some insiders suspect that Museveni orchestrated the overturn of the anti-gay legislation as the court's ruling came just days before a Washington DC summit of African nations.

RELATED: Two weeks ago a Four Seasons hotel in Irving, Texas reportedly turned away Museveni and his wife. A spokesman for the hotel said that the Four Seasons simply could not accommodate them on short notice, but the incident was reported as a "snubbing" in the African press. Museveni claimed, "My people made hotel bookings for me, but homosexuals blocked it."

UGANDA: President Urges Parliament To Slow Reinstatement Of Anti-Gay Act

Via the Associated Press:

President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is urging parliamentarians not to rush to reintroduce a controversial anti-gay law that was invalidated earlier this month, saying the measure is not a priority and could hurt the country’s economic development. Museveni, who held a meeting Monday with lawmakers from his party, urged parliamentarians “not to cause chaos” by quickly reintroducing the bill, according to Medard Bitekyerezo, a lawmaker who strongly supports the anti-gay measure. He said Museveni formed a committee, to be chaired by Vice President Edward Kiwanuka Ssekandi, to look into the concerns of rights activists who challenged the constitutionality of the law. The government-controlled New Vision newspaper reported Tuesday that Museveni warned lawmakers that the bill could hurt the country’s economic development. Museveni asked the parliamentarians to debate the law “without any emotional feelings,” the paper reported.

Some Ugandan observers claim that it was Museveni who was secretly behind the bill's overturn, which came just days before he visited Washington for a summit of African nations held by the US State Department. More than 200 members of the Ugandan Parliament have already signed on to reinstate the bill.

UGANDA: Lawmakers Launch Campaign To Reinstate Anti-Homosexuality Act

As many had expected they would, Ugandan legislators have launched a campaign to reinstate the brutal Anti-Homosexuality Act, which was struck down last week on a technicality.

It was not immediately clear whether President Museveni would support the bill a second time, if passed by parliament again. “We’re mobilizing members to pledge their support for reintroduction of this bill when the House comes back from recess [in about two weeks’ time],” Abdu Latif Ssebaggala, [PHOTO] told Reuters. Ssebaggala said he had started collecting signatures on Tuesday of members of parliament in favour of reintroducing the bill and that he expected to have over 200 – in a house of 383 members – by the end of Wednesday. Homosexuality is taboo in much of Africa and is illegal in 37 countries there. But the punishments in Uganda were among the harshest.

According to the African news outlet Mail & Guardian, observers claim that Uganda's president was secretly behind the ruling that struck down the bill.

Observers say that it was a “wily piece of realpolitik” managed by Uganda’s longtime leader amid aid cuts by international donors, allowing him to avoid appearing to cave in to foreign pressure. “This is good news for Museveni, who has been able to say to a lot of supporters: ‘Listen, I did what I could, I stuck my neck out’, while at the same time, potentially allowing for some aid money to return,” said Harry Verhoeven, a doctoral researcher at Oxford University’s department of politics and international relations. The law caused an international outcry when Museveni signed it in February, with the United States secretary of state John Kerry likening it to anti-Semitic legislation in Nazi Germany. Critics said Museveni signed the law to win domestic support ahead of a presidential election scheduled for 2016, which will be his 30th year in power. But it lost him friends abroad, with several international donors freezing or redirecting millions of dollars of government aid, saying the country had violated human rights and democratic principles.

The ruling came just two days before Museveni's visit to Washington DC for a State Department summit with officials from African nations. A photo of Museveni posing this week with President Obama and the First Lady has outraged some LGBT activists. The photo was posted to the official Flickr account of the State Department.

Uganda Celebrates Anti-Gay Crackdown

On Saturday Ugandan Pastor Martin "Eat Da Poo Poo" Ssempa smirkingly invited me to attend a parade in celebration of his country's brutal crackdown on its LGBT citizens. The festivities went off as planned yesterday, complete with a marching band and children that waved anti-gay signs.

 J. Lester Feder reports at Buzzfeed:

Fire jugglers, acrobats, and schoolchildren performed at a five-hour ceremony in the Ugandan capital on Monday called to celebrate the country’s new Anti-Homosexuality Act. Speakers paid tribute to President Yoweri Museveni, the official guest of honor, and linked Uganda’s fight against homosexuality with shedding its colonial past in an event that had the feeling of a campaign rally. [snip The event, called the “National Thanksgiving Service Celebrating the Passing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” was organized by the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), an umbrella organization of the country’s major denominations, and other groups that had supported the bill, which punishes homosexuality with up to life in prison and essentially bans LGBT advocacy. The event comes amidst several moves by Museveni to consolidate his position as the unchallenged leader of Uganda and his National Resistance Movement party ahead of presidential elections in 2016.

Feder notes that President Musevni spoke at the event, which was also attended by numerous members of the Ugandan national legislature and other government officials. After Museveni told the crowd that gay sex causes intestines to fall out, he added another denouncement: "Oral sex is an idiocy, the mouth is for eating." Read much more and view many more photos at Feder's excellent report.

Tweet Of The Day - Frank Mugisha

Buzzfeed has the story:

Human rights advocates and opposition politicians filed a lawsuit against Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act on Tuesday. The Anti-Homosexuality Act, which President Yoweri Museveni signed into law on February 24, imposes up to a life sentence for homosexuality and criminalizes advocating LGBT rights. The petitioners include activists Frank Mugisha of Sexual Minorities Uganda, trans activist Julian Pepe Onziema, former Ugandan opposition leader Ogenga Latigo, and Member of Parliament Fox Odoi. The suit argues that the law violates the right to equality before the law under the Ugandan constitution, as well as the right to privacy, freedom of expression, and association. It also notes that parliament lacked a quorum when it voted in favor of the bill on December 20.

RELATED: Mugisha is a party to the lawsuit against Scott Lively.

John Kerry Spoke To Uganda's President

Via press release from the State Department:

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke with Ugandan President Museveni yesterday via phone. Secretary Kerry expressed the United States’ deep disappointment in the Ugandan Government’s decision to enact the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. The Secretary noted that the decision complicates the U.S. relationship with Uganda. He also raised U.S. concerns that this discriminatory law poses a threat to the safety and security of Uganda’s LGBT community, and urged President Museveni to ensure the safety and protection of all Ugandan citizens. The two also discussed the law’s negative impact on public health efforts including those to address HIV/AIDS, as well as on tourism and foreign investment in Uganda.

That's the full official message. There may be some analysis from insiders later and I'll post that here as an update.

Sen. Patrick Leahy Proposes Freezing Aid To Uganda Over Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) has proposed freezing US aid to Uganda over the enactment of that country's brutal anti-homosexuality bill, which was signed last week by President Yoweri Museveni.

“I am deeply concerned by the decision of President (Yoweri) Museveni of Uganda to sign into law the anti-homosexuality bill,” Senator Patrick Leahy, the most senior member of the chamber and chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said in a statement. “Much of US assistance to Uganda is for the people of Uganda, including those in the Ugandan LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community whose human rights are being so tragically violated,” he added. Washington is among Uganda’s largest international donors. The State Department said that in current fiscal year some $485 million in bilateral assistance had been provided to Uganda with most of the funds going towards health programs, as well as education, food security and military training. The State Department has signalled it is looking at a range of options to respond to the law, while White House spokesman Jay Carney said “we are undertaking a review of our relationship with Uganda in light of this decision.”

With the aid of Western governments and NGOs, Uganda has seen a remarkable decline in HIV infections compared to its neighbors. Some US and European HIV/AIDS activists oppose cutting financial aid despite the latest law. Yesterday a prominent Ugandan LGBT activist begged that aid not be cut, saying such a move would only create a stronger backlash against LGBT people in his country.

Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, has said he does not support aid cuts. ‘We can’t afford to create new victims,’ he said on Twitter this week. ‘We should go after the crazy politicians! Not innocent Ugandans.’ In February this year, prominent Ugandan LGBTI rights activist Abbey Kiwanuka petitioned the Dutch foreign affairs committee to use other ways to persuade Uganda not to make the bill law instead of cutting aid. His pleas were turned down. Edwin Sesange, director of the African LGBTI Out and Proud Diamond Group, said in a Gay Star News comment piece: ‘Aid in various forms helps all ordinary Ugandans, including LGBTI people who we are campaigning for. ‘Therefore the consequences of not being able to access those services financed by foreign aid will directly impact gay, lesbian, trans and bi Ugandans wellbeing.'

RELATED: Sexual Minorities Uganda is the group suing Scott Lively for crimes against humanity.

Ugandan Paper Names "200 Top Homos"

A Ugandan tabloid has published the names of 200 allegedly gay citizens, putting all of these people at the risk of being murdered. Which has happened before. Via the Associated Press:

The Red Pepper tabloid published the names — and some pictures — of alleged homosexuals in a front-page story under the headline: "EXPOSED!" The list included prominent Ugandan gay activists such as Pepe Julian Onziema, who has repeatedly warned that Uganda's new anti-gay law could spark violence against homosexuals. A popular Ugandan hip-hop star as well as a Catholic priest are also on the list. Few Ugandans identify themselves publicly as gay, and the tabloid's publication of alleged homosexuals recalled a similar list published in 2011 by a now-defunct tabloid that called for the execution of gays. A Ugandan judge later condemned the outing of homosexuals in a country where gays face severe discrimination, saying it amounted to an invasion of privacy. A prominent Ugandan gay activist, David Kato, was killed after that list came out, and activists said at the time that they believed he was targeted because of his work promoting gay rights in Uganda. "The media witch hunt is back," tweeted Jacqueline Kasha, a well-known Ugandan lesbian activist who is among those listed in the Red Pepper story.

As noted above, the last time a Ugandan paper did this, it was ordered to pay damages of 1.5M Ugandan shillings (about $650) to the people named and the paper went out of business. But that was before the Anti-Homosexuality Bill was signed into law. Read my coverage of the murder of Ugandan activist David Kato.

White House Denounces Uganda

Via press release:

Statement by the Press Secretary on Uganda: Instead of standing on the side of freedom, justice, and equal rights for its people, today, regrettably, Ugandan President Museveni took Uganda a step backward by signing into law legislation criminalizing homosexuality. As President Obama has said, this law is more than an affront and a danger to the gay community in Uganda, it reflects poorly on the country's commitment to protecting the human rights of its people and will undermine public health, including efforts to fight HIV/AIDS. We will continue to urge the Ugandan government to repeal this abhorrent law and to advocate for the protection of the universal human rights of LGBT persons in Uganda and around the world.

Let's hope we also get a statement directly from President Obama.

Group Suing Scott Lively Says He Is "Directly Responsible" For Ugandan Law

From the Center For Constitutional Rights:

In addition to putting the lives of LGBTI Ugandans at serious risk, in signing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, President Museveni has criminalized the existence and work of our client, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), and other advocacy organizations in violation of the Ugandan constitution and international law. The Center for Constitutional Rights holds right-wing U.S. evangelical Scott Lively directly responsible: he has been working in Uganda since 2002 to outlaw the speech and assembly of LGBTI people and effectively silence and erase the community from political life.

Just last Friday he claimed to be launching a new international anti-gay organization based in Illinois, whose first statement was its express support for the repressive Russian laws banning LGBTI advocacy “and to urge other nations of the world to follow the Russian example. “ Lively has played a key role in moving forward anti-speech and advocacy laws in Eastern Europe and elsewhere, as well. The Center for Constitutional Rights will continue the fight to hold Lively accountable in a U.S. court on behalf of our client, Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG). This dangerous legislation had already stoked a climate of hatred and persecution and led to violence against the LGBTI community in Uganda and Russia.

Bolding is mine.

UGANDA: President Signs Anti-Gay Bill

Just yesterday the Guardian reported that Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was putting off signing the anti-gay bill while he challenges US scientists to disprove that homosexuality is a choice. But today Museveni has signed the bill.

According to the Associated Press news agency, government officials clapped after Mr Museveni signed the bill at a press conference at State House. The BBC's Catherine Byaruhanga in Uganda says it is rare for the president to assent to bills so publicly. But the anti-gay bill has become so controversial that the media were invited to witness its signing, she says. Ugandan gay rights activist.

Earlier government spokesman spokesman Ofwono Opondo told Reuters news agency Mr Museveni wanted "to demonstrate Uganda's independence in the face of Western pressure and provocation". The sponsor of the bill, MP David Bahati, insisted homosexuality was a "behaviour that can be learned and can be unlearned". Homosexuality is just bad behaviour, that should not be allowed in our society," he told the BBC's Newsday programme.

But a gay rights activist in Uganda told the programme that he was "very scared" about the new bill. "I didn't even go to work today [Monday]. I'm locked up in the house. "And I don't know what's going to happen now. I'm talking to all my activists on the phone. And it's the same, they are all locked up in their houses. They can't move out. They are watching their back to see what happens."

UGANDA: Anti-Gay Bill On Hold While President Challenges US Scientists To Disprove That Homosexuality Is A Choice

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has put off signing the anti-gay bill while he challenges American scientists to disprove that homosexuality is a choice.

A week ago Museveni had insisted that he would approve the legislation, prompting criticism from US president Barack Obama and former president Bill Clinton. The US warned that the move would "complicate" relations with Uganda, to which it gives more than $400m (£240m) in aid annually. Uganda dismissed the threat as blackmail but on Friday it emerged that Museveni had done a u-turn and would not sign the proposed law until after hearing from scientists. "I therefore encourage the US government to help us by working with our scientists to study whether, indeed, there are people who are born homosexual," he wrote. "When that is proved, we can review this legislation." But he added: "Africans do not seek to impose their views on anybody. We do not want anybody to impose their views on us. This very debate was provoked by western groups who come to our schools and try to recruit children into homosexuality."

My guess is that Obama's strong denouncement of the bill is working. For now. Ugandan Minister of Ethics Simon Lokodo is very unhappy.

"It is a social style of life that is acquired," he said. "The point is they chose to be homosexual and are trying to recruit others. The commercialisation of homosexuality is unacceptable. If they were doing it in their own rooms we wouldn't mind, but when they go for children, that's not fair. They are beasts of the forest." Lokodo condemned western meddling in Uganda's domestic affairs. "When I heard the US saying they will cut aid, we said fine. Will they be comfortable if we come to America and started practising polygamy? Homosexuality is strange to us and polygamy is strange to you. We have divergent views. When they call me wrong, I will call them wrong. Don't bring it to Africa; keep it there."

Last week Lokodo declared that Uganda shows tolerance to gay people by "not slaughtering them."

Ugandan President To Obama: You Can't Tell Me How To Run My House

Yesterday Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni responded to President Obama's denouncement of the anti-homosexuality bill, saying, "You can't tell me how to run my house." (That quote is inexact and has been reported in different versions. The audio below is unclear.) Museveni has not yet signed the bill, but some reports say he might do so today. He has also issued a lengthy written response to Obama. Here's how it begins:

I have seen the statement H.E President Obama of the USA made in reaction to my statement that I was going to sign the anti-homosexual Bill, which I made at Kyankwanzi. Before I react to H.E. Obama’s statement, let me, again, put on record my views on the issue of homo-sexuals (ebitiingwa, bisiyaga in some of our dialects). Right from the beginning of this debate, my views were as follows:

1. I agreed with the MPs and almost all Ugandans that promotion of homosexuality in Uganda must be criminalized or rather should continue to be criminalized because the British had already done that;

2. Those who agreed to become homosexuals for mercenary reasons (prostitutes) should be harshly punished as should those who paid them to be homosexual prostitutes; and

3. Exhibitionism of homosexual behavior must be punished because, in this part of the World, it is forbidden to publicly exhibit any sexual conduct (kissing, etc) even for heterosexuals; if I kissed my wife of 41 years in public, I would lose elections in Uganda.

UGANDA: Government Bans Pornography, Miniskirts, And Photos Of Kissing Couples

Continuing his crackdown on all civil liberties, today Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed a bill that makes it a criminal offense to possess pornography and for women to dress in a manner that "excites sexual cravings" in men. The signing, which was was announced by Minister for Ethics & Integrity Simon Lokodo [photo], effectively means that most foreign television shows and movies are now banned in Uganda.

According to the law, pornography means “any representation through publication, exhibition, cinematography, indecent show, information technology or by whatever means, of a person engaged in real or stimulated explicit sexual activities or any representation of the sexual parts of a person for primary sexual excitement.” Minister Lokodo also identified sex tease shows commonly known as bimansulo, videos or photos depicting child sex, and musicians, especially female artistes, who perform in very revealing short dresses, as the other banned acts. “We do not like you to behave in a way that draws the attention of other people. Be decent and let your cloth show you as a decent person,” Lokodo said. Asked to draw precise indecency lines, the minister said: “If you are dressed in something that irritates the mind and excites other people especially of the opposite sex, you are dressed in wrong attire and please hurry up and change”.

The law also bans the media from publishing photos of kissing couples. Read the full bill. Uganda is a predominantly Christian nation with 85% of the population so identifying.

RELATED: Two years ago this week Lokodo ordered a police raid on a Ugandan LGBT rights group.  Lokodo is a former Catholic priest who was defrocked in 2011 when he disobeyed Vatican orders to drop his pursuit of political office.