Under Uganda Anti-LGBTQ Law, Man Is Arrested on Charge Punishable by Death

Ugandan prosecutors have lodged expenses of “aggravated homosexuality” towards a 20-year-old man — against the law punishable by demise — in one of many nation’s first purposes of provision included in one of many world’s harshest antigay legal guidelines.

Identical-sex acts had lengthy been thought of unlawful beneath Uganda’s penal code, however a regulation enacted this yr launched far harsher penalties and vastly prolonged the vary of perceived offenses. Its passage drew condemnation from human rights teams and the United Nations, and the Biden administration referred to as it “one of the crucial excessive” antigay measures on the earth.

The measure, signed into regulation in Might, referred to as for all times in jail for anybody who engaged in homosexual intercourse and allowed the demise penalty for what it labeled “aggravated homosexuality.” That class included same-sex relations with disabled individuals, who had been outlined very broadly.

Prosecutors used the demise penalty provision this month to cost a 20-year-old man with having sexual activity with a 41-year-old man with a incapacity within the metropolis of Soroti, in Japanese Uganda, based on Jacquelyn Okui, a spokeswoman for the Workplace of the Director of Public Prosecution. (A separate case towards a unique man, lodged final month, concerned an underage particular person, Ms. Okui mentioned.)

In Uganda, a conservative, principally Christian nation, many non secular leaders and politicians have painted same-sex relations as a Western import. “Africans are getting used to just accept this nonsense of the Western world, and homosexuality is on the agenda,” James Nsaba Buturo, a former minister of ethics and integrity within the Ugandan authorities, mentioned in March.

Antigay habits took a very extreme flip in Uganda over the previous yr, with authorities eradicating rainbow colours from a park and fogeys charging into a faculty as a result of they thought a homosexual particular person taught there.

Justine Balya, a director on the Human Rights Consciousness and Promotion Discussion board, mentioned the brand new regulation, and the draconian punishments it outlines, had intimidated homosexual Ugandans.

Her group, which is representing the 20-year-old, has reported that total violence and abuse towards L.G.B.T.Q. individuals have elevated because the regulation’s passage: Fifty-three individuals have been evicted from rented property for causes linked to their sexual orientation or gender id, 47 have confronted violence or threats of violence and 17 have been arrested on varied expenses associated to sexuality or gender id.

Frank Mugisha, a outstanding gay-rights activist in Uganda, mentioned that many others feared they might lose their jobs or had been afraid to go to public locations for concern of being attacked or arrested. Some started fleeing the nation earlier, because the regulation made its manner via Parliament.

“It has been a brutal three months for the neighborhood in Uganda,” mentioned Ms. Balya, who argued that the regulation was unconstitutional.

Uganda has not had an execution in about 20 years, Ms. Balya mentioned — the demise penalty normally winds up as life imprisonment — however advocates say that the tough authorized local weather has put L.G.B.T.Q. individuals in much more hazard.

“Persons are freaking out,” Mr. Mugisha mentioned, including that many homosexual or lesbian Ugandans feared they may very well be arrested at any time and that he apprehensive about a rise in blackmail because of this.

“This regulation is making a witch hunt,” he mentioned.

The antigay effort in Uganda drew help from native Christian and Muslim teams together with the monetary and logistical backing of conservative evangelical teams in america. Politicians insisted that homosexuality was undermining Ugandan stability and placing youngsters in danger.

Even earlier than the newest regulation, the Ugandan authorities stopped individuals suspected of being homosexual on what rights teams mentioned had been fabricated pretexts. As early as 2009, a Ugandan politician launched a invoice that threatened to hold homosexual individuals. Western international locations exhorted Uganda to halt the crackdown and threatened to chop support to the nation.

However the nation’s president, Yoweri Museveni, signed the 2023 regulation in Might.

A handful of nations around the globe had already imposed the demise penalty for homosexual intercourse, together with Iran and Saudi Arabia, and same-sex conduct is against the law in additional than 60 international locations, principally in Africa and Asia, based on a survey by Human Rights Watch.

The Ugandan crackdown comes at a time when different African nations are dealing with the rise of equally antigay insurance policies and habits.

A broad anti-L.G.B.T.Q. regulation is shifting via Ghana’s Parliament, and a lawmaker in Kenya is campaigning for a invoice to impose harsher penalties on same-sex sexual acts.

Mr. Mugisha, the gay-rights activist, mentioned that the prosecutions in Uganda may energize these international locations to move the legal guidelines.

“They may see the regulation works,” he mentioned. “They may wish to do the identical.”