On March 21, Uganda’s parliament passed a law making it illegal to identify as LGBTQ+, Reuters reported.
The development hands authorities broad powers to target LGBTQ+ Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence. In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law bans promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality. President Yoweri Museveni, who has opposed LGBTQ+ rights for quite some time, is expected to sign the measure.
More than 30 African nations, including Uganda, already prohibit same-sex relations.
LGBTQ+-rights activist Frank Mugisha criticized the statute, saying, “This law is very extreme and draconian. … It criminalizes being an LGBTQ person, but also they are trying to erase the entire existence of any LGBTQ Ugandan.”