Uganda’s president approves anti-LGBTQ law that imposes death penalty on offenders

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has approved anti-LGBTQ laws, his spokesman said on Monday, defying condemnations from Western governments, businesses and human rights activists.

Same-sex relations were already illegal in Uganda, as they are in more than 30 African countries, but the new law goes further in targeting lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer people.

It imposes the death penalty for so-called aggravated homosexuality, which includes having gay sex when HIV-positive, and a 20-year sentence for “promoting” homosexuality.

“If the speaker has announced, then that’s true he has signed,” Museveni’s spokesman Faruk Kirunda told Reuters.

Museveni, a strong opponent of LGBTQ rights, had sent the original bill, which parliament passed in March, back to lawmakers, asking that they tone down certain provisions.

On May 2, parliament passed a revised bill that made minor amendments while leaving most of the original legislation intact.