Yesterday, the Ugandan Parliament added a bill to its schedule that would sentence LGBT people in Uganda to death. According to reports from international news providers like Agence France-Press and LGBT news sites including Towleroad, the bill might be debated as early as today or over the next several weeks.
Rebecca Kadaga, speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, recently told the Associated Press that the anti-gay bill would be a "Christmas gift" to the population.
Sexual Minorities Uganda's Frank Mugisha, who has fearlessly worked to prevent the bill from becoming law, detailed the bill's draconian provisions in an email today: "Any person alleged to be homosexual would be at risk of life imprisonment or in some circumstances the death penalty. Any parent who does not denounce their lesbian daughter or gay son to the authorities would face fines of $2,650 or three years in prison. Any teacher who does not report a lesbian or gay pupil to the authorities within 24 hours would face the same penalties. And any landlord or landlady who happens to give housing to a suspected homosexual would risk 7 years of imprisonment."
The Uganda Parliament is poised to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill sometime between now and Christmas. Meanwhile, five European countries—Britain, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden—have already announced they were freezing aid payments to Uganda due to massive corruption.... Their announcements came before the Anti-Homosexuality Bill went onto Parliament’s agenda, although Sweden and Britain have previously stated that they would either cut foreign aid if the Anti-Homosexuality Bill becomes law. The US last year issued a directive stating, “Agencies involved with foreign aid, assistance, and development shall enhance their ongoing efforts to ensure regular Federal Government engagement with governments, citizens, civil society, and the private sector in order to build respect for the human rights of LGBT persons.”
But with so many reasons for the U.S. to cut aid to Uganda—or at least to have a serous sit-down with Ugandan authorities—US Ambassador to Uganda Scott H. DeLisi has made the rounds in Kampala to say that there are no plans to spend your tax dollars more effectively elsewhere: “'The U.S has decided to continue giving aid to Uganda despite the ongoing numerous investigations into the misuse of foreign aid.' Ambassador Scott H. DeLisi said."
Please sign All Out's petition and ask the U.S. to once again speak out against Uganda's proposed "kill the gays" law—and ask the U.S. to cut aid off if the law is passed—by writing the U.S. State Department on its Facebook page.
