Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni plans to sign a very popular bill into law that prescribes life imprisonment for some homosexual acts, officials said Friday, in a country where homosexuality already has been criminalized.
Museveni announced his decision to governing party lawmakers, said government spokesman Ofwono Opondo. Opondo said the legislators “welcomed the development as a measure to protect Ugandans from social deviants.”
homosexual acts,warned Museveni on Sunday that enacting an anti-gay law would complicate U.S. relations with Uganda and would be a “step backward for all Ugandans.”
His national security adviser, Susan Rice, said via Twitter that she had spoken by phone to Museveni on Saturday night to protest after he told members of his party that he would sign the law.
“As we have conveyed to President Museveni, enacting this legislation will complicate our valued relationship with Uganda,” Obama said.
Museveni’s decision was based on a report by medical experts presented at the retreat, saying that “homosexuality is not genetic but a social behavior,” said Opondo.
Evelyn Anite, a spokeswoman for the governing party, said the report, which had been requested by the president, was prepared by more than a dozen scientists from Uganda’s Health Ministry.
Homosexuality already is illegal in Uganda under a colonial-era law that criminalizes sex acts “against the order of nature.”
The bill is popular in Uganda, one of many sub-Saharan African countries where homosexuals face severe discrimination if not jail terms. A new law in Nigeria last month increased penalties against gays.
After the Ugandan bill was passed late last year, Museveni called for a “scientifically correct” position on homosexuality, ordering the team of government scientists to investigate whether homosexuality is a lifestyle, according to Anite.
Their report led Museveni to believe homosexuality should be punished, she said.
Museveni believes gays should be “rehabilitated”.
Museveni has been under pressure within his own party to sign the legislation, which has wide support among Christian clerics and lawmakers who say it is needed to deter white homosexuals from recruiting Ugandan children.