Voters in Uganda dumped three of the country’s most outspoken homophobes when they went to the polls for national elections in January.
David Bahati, Asumani Basalirwa and Sarah Opendi were responsible for championing some of the most extreme pieces of legislation targeting the LGBTQIA+ community on the African continent.
Bahati introduced Uganda’s first notorious “kill the gays bill”, the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2009, which would have punished consensual same-sex relationships with up to life in prison, and the death penalty for acts of “aggravated homosexuality.”
Bahati continued pushing the bill into 2013 when a version of it was passed by Parliament in December with the death penalty removed.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed the bill into law in February of 2014.
In response, Uganda’s international development partners suspended over $140 million in aid and the country was rebuked by world leaders.
Six months later, Uganda’s Constitutional Court struck down the law on a technicality, finding that it had been passed without quorum by lawmakers.
Lawmakers passed a similar bill in 2021 but President Museveni vetoed it as it mostly duplicated existing legislation.
A second Anti-Homosexuality Bill
Asumani Basalirwa introduced the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 which was seconded by Sarah Opendi, who also called for the castration of those convicted.
Like David Bahati’s bill, Basalirwa’s bill prescribes the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality.”
That bill became the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 when it was signed into law in May of that year.
Constitutional Court upholds second law
In April of 2024, Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld the law when it was challenged by activists and human rights defenders.
Earlier this month a court in Uganda threw out a case against the first person to be prosecuted under the law.
The man had been arrested in August of 2023, but the court found that he was not mentally fit for the trial to proceed as his mental health had deteriorated during his years of captivity.
(Q News)
