Museveni signs into law revised anti-gay Bill

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni on Monday signed into law the anti-gay bill, which prescribes tougher penalties for ''aggravated homosexuality''.

The new law, one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, makes homosexuality illegal with offenders set to face a 20-year jail sentence for promoting homosexuality.

''President @KagutaMuseveni has assented to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill 2023. It now becomes the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023,'' twitted State House, Uganda.

Uganda now faces possible sanctions on financial aid from donors following the enactment of the bill with activists promoting LGBT expected to mount a legal challenge.

The US government had already threatened that it would assess the implications of the new legislation for activities in Uganda under PEPFAR, its flagship HIV/AIDS programme.

The Ugandan government had come under international condemnation from the European Union, United Nations and a coalition of international companies over the anti-LGBTQ regime push.

On May 2, the Ugandan Parliament made amendments to the initial bill that was passed by Parliament on March 21which had criminalised merely identifying with LGBT and wanted people to report homosexual activities.

The new law, however, stipulates that citizens are under obligation to report homosexual activity only when a child is involved.

Museveni had in April 20 returned the Homosexuality Bill, 2023 to Parliament with a memorandum to only punish same sex actors when it involves minors.

Activists in Uganda have vowed a legal challenge against the law.

"The Ugandan president has today legalised state-sponsored homophobia and transphobia," Clare Byarugaba, a Ugandan rights activist told Reuters.

"It's a very dark and sad day for the LGBTIQ community, our allies and all of Uganda."

In 2014, Ugandan Court ruled as illegal the same law even after Museveni had assented to it.

Museveni has called homosexuality a "deviation from normal."