Joe Biden Warns Uganda Will Face Sanctions & Other Penalties Over Anti-Gay Law

Joe Biden Threatens Uganda Will Face Sanctions & Other Penalties Over Anti-Gay Law

US President Joe Biden demanded the “immediate repeal” of Uganda’s severe anti-gay law and will consider sanctions or other penalties against the African country and its leadership.

On 29 May, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni signed legislation that imposes grave penalties for “promoting” homosexuality, including the possibility of the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality” or unknowingly transmitting HIV/AIDS.

United States President Joe Biden called the move “a tragic violation” of human rights and said Washington would evaluate the implications of the law “on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda.”

 

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“We are considering additional steps, including the application of sanctions and restriction of entry into the United States against anyone involved in serious human rights abuses or corruption,” he said.

A presidency photo of Museveni showed him signing the law with a golden pen at his desk. The 78-year-old has called homosexuality a “deviation from normal” and urged lawmakers to resist “imperialist” pressure.

A local organisation, Human Rights Awareness and Promotion Forum, and 10 other individuals later filed a complaint against the law at the constitutional court, one of the petitioners, Busingye Kabumba, told Reuters.

Museveni had sent the original bill passed in March back, asking parliament to tone down some provisions. But his ultimate approval was not seen as in doubt in a conservative country where anti-LGBTQ attitudes have hardened in recent years, in part due to campaigning by Western evangelical church groups.