Uganda’s parliament has passed sweeping anti-gay legislation that proposes tough new penalties for same-sex relationships and criminalizes anyone identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or queer (LGBTQ).
While more than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relationships, the new law passed on Tuesday appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as LGBTQ, Human Rights Watch said.
In an opinion submitted to a Ugandan parliamentary committee earlier this month, Human Rights Watch said the new law “would violate multiple fundamental rights guaranteed under Uganda’s Constitution and international human rights instruments to which Uganda is a party.” “One of the most extreme features of this new bill is that it criminalizes people simply for being who they are as well as further infringing on the rights to privacy, and freedoms of expression and association that are already compromised in Uganda,” said Oryem Nyeko, Uganda expert at Human Rights Watch.
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