Yoweri Museveni, president of Uganda, has backed a contentious law that has some of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ legislation, but he will send it back to parliament so that it include provisions for the rehabilitation of gay individuals.
However, Museveni commended the parliamentarians for passing the bill and vowed he would never yield to international criticism at a National Resistance Movement (NRM) gathering on Friday.
“I want to congratulate the honourable members of parliament on your stand on the “Ebitingwa,” [Runyankore word for gay men],” he said
“Congratulations, I congratulate you for that strong stand. It is good that you rejected the pressure from the imperialists.”
The bill, which prescribes the death penalty in some cases, was passed last month and has already triggered a wave of arrests and attacks against LGBTQ Ugandans.
But Museveni rejected criticism from human rights groups.
“Europe is lost. So they also want us to be lost, but in order to fight we must be patriotic.
“If we are parasitic in mind, mind of a parasite, there is no way you can fight, that’s how you become a prostitute because you feared sacrifice, you fear difficulties. Somebody says I will give you money if you become a prostitute. And that’s what they want us to be.
“They want Africa to be prostitutes. Do what we don’t believe in because we want money.”
Those who advocate or promote the rights of LGBTQ people can be jailed for up to 20 years and be sentenced to death for an offence of “aggravated homosexuality.”
The U.S. has warned of economic consequences if the legislation is enacted. A group of U.N. experts has described the bill, if enacted, as “an egregious violation of human rights.”