Uganda: Drop the Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Ugandan lawmakers have just approved some of the world’s harshest anti-LGBT+ legislation, including introducing the death penalty for “aggravated homosexuality”. Ask the Ugandan President to veto the Bill.

If the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is signed into law by our President, LGBT+ people in my country face mass arrests and violence. We are frightened for our lives.

The new law represents a sweeping crackdown on our human rights and on our citizenship. It criminalizes us just for being who we are.

If the Bill is signed into law, we face the prospect of prison sentences of up to twenty years for “promoting homosexuality” and the death penalty for so-called “aggravated homosexuality”.

And the hateful and genocidal rhetoric aimed at the LGBT+ community that was voiced in Uganda's Parliament is now causing a violent and brutal backlash against our community. Unfortunately, I have already witnessed a significant increase in cases of extortion, eviction, denial of healthcare, and savage mob violence.

You also don’t need to be an expert lawyer to know that the draft law violates fundamental human rights guaranteed by our constitution and a range of international human rights instruments that Uganda has signed up to.

Our community is strong, resilient and determined. We will be tireless in making the case that this law has no place in a modern, successful, democratic Uganda.

But we also need your help. Please sign this petition to tell our President that LGBT+ Ugandans are citizens of our country, worthy of respect and deserving of our fundamental human rights.


Update – May 2, 2023: After the president sent the anti-homosexuality bill back to Parliament, it has been passed again today by Ugandan lawmakers. Some changes were made to the bill, including a clarification that someone believed or suspected of being gay but has not engaged in same-sex acts is not considered to have committed a crime. However, the bill still includes a 20-year prison sentence for those who "knowingly promote homosexuality", and even the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality." The president now has 30 days to either veto or sign the bill into law. It is critically important to continue urging the Ugandan President to veto the bill.

Update – May 29, 2023: Uganda’s new anti-LGBT+ law was signed by President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni, today. The law will come into force once gazetted. If you want to help, you can donate here to help fund urgent needs like relocation and security for LGBT+ Ugandans.

A Ugandan LGBT+ activist who is choosing to stay anonymous due to the current security situation.

0people have signed
Goal: 80,000

To His Excellency, Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda:

Dear President Museveni,

We respectfully request that you do not sign the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023 into Ugandan law.

The draft law denies fundamental human and constitutional rights to LGBT+ citizens of Uganda.

Uganda is, for example, a signatory to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This is a binding international commitment. But the draft law you are considering clearly stands in opposition to multiple articles of the UDHR, including the right to privacy, the right to freedom of expression and the right to equal treatment before the law.

It enables and emboldens those who want to take the law into their own hands by intimidating and attacking their fellow citizens. It also sets a terrible precedent of morality through organized religion, being a basis for legislation in a country whose Constitution describes it as secular.

If passed, it could turn Uganda into an international pariah state, risking private sector investment and international donor support that benefit all Ugandans. Furthermore, this law, if passed, will be used to suppress the rights and voices of an already marginalized group, who also deserve state protection as citizens of this country.

Uganda would put all this at stake for very little benefit. The concerns raised by lawmakers about crimes such as pedophilia and rape are already covered in the Ugandan criminal code. These existing laws rightly apply to all Ugandans - whether gay or straight.

Passing this bill also plays into the hands of neo-colonial forces from the US, Russia and elsewhere that have imported dangerous false narratives about LGBT+ people into your country.

Ugandan LGBT+ people are everywhere. They are doctors, lawyers, priests, shopkeepers, and teachers. They want to live their lives as law-abiding citizens of a country they love.

Please do not make them outcasts in their own country.

0people have signed
Goal: 80,000

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