Uganda president says new anti-gay law ‘not necessary’
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has said a new anti-gay law is ‘not necessary’ because the country already has one.
According to the Associated Press, the long-standing leader indicated that he would not further pursue anti-gay legislation he signed last year but was later thrown out by the country’s highest court.
‘That law was not necessary, because we already have a law which was left by the British which deals with this issue,’ he told reporters in Tokyo last week.
Uganda already punishes gay sex with up to life imprisonment under a colonial-era anti-sodomy law, and same-sex marriage is banned in the constitution.
The Anti-Homosexuality Act would have made it illegal to even ‘promote’ homosexuality, and those who failed to report LGBTI people to the police would also risk arrest or jail.
‘It is our view that we punish exhibitionism, recruiters and homosexual prostitutes,’ Museveni said in February last year as he signed the law on live TV.
‘We are sick of homosexuals exhibiting themselves. All Africans are flabbergasted by this exhibition of sexual conduct.’
The proposed law was widely criticized in the West, including by US President Barack Obama, and was struck down by the constitutional court that August.
The post Uganda president says new anti-gay law ‘not necessary’ appeared first on Gay Star News.
Darren Wee
www.gaystarnews.com/article/uganda-president-says-new-anti-gay-law-not-necessary/
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