By Faith Gonia
In May of 2023, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda signed a bill that criminalized homosexuality, with punishments ranging from years in prison to the death penalty. Despite immense backlash from activists, civil rights groups, and numerous other countries, Uganda’s Constitutional Court upheld that same law nearly a year later.
The anti-gay law, representative of several African countries’ growing homophobic sentiment, calls for life in prison for anyone who participates in gay sex. Those under the age of 18, if convicted, must undergo “rehabilitation” and a prison sentence of as many as three years. Even attempted same-sex relations for adults could result in a decade-long prison sentence.
Notably, Ugandan lawmakers distinguished “aggravated homosexuality”—homosexual acts with children, disabled, or unconscious individuals—as punishable with the death penalty. While Ugandan law already classifies rape as illegal, the new law isolates same-sex rape from opposite-sex rape. Convicted rapists of the opposite sex receive life in prison; those convicted of “aggravated homosexuality,” the death penalty.
Fighting against the discriminatory law, activists took to court to challenge its constitutionality. Nonetheless, the five-judge panel only addressed smaller sections of the law, including an obligation to report homosexuality.
In response, the United States plans to restrict visas for anyone who took part in enacting the anti-gay law. Additionally, the World Bank plans to cease any future funding to the East African Country.