America will impose travel restrictions on high-ranking Ugandan officials in response to a new law signed by Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni that increases penalties for gay-related offenses.
The law imposes the death penalty for someone convicted of “aggravated homosexuality”, an offence that includes transmitting HIV through gay sex. It also provides for life sentences for same-sex intercourse and a 20-year sentence for promoting homosexuality. The law has become known as the Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023.
The U.S. State Department has “also updated its travel guidance to US citizens to highlight the risk that LGBTQI+ persons, or those perceived to be LGBTQI+, could be prosecuted and subjected to life imprisonment or the death penalty based on provisions in the law.”
Although the State Department says the U.S. will impose travel restrictions, it did not list the names or positions of the officials who would be subject to the restrictions.
Homosexuality was already against the law in Uganda, which is very religious, and non-governmental organizations say open homosexuals risked arrest.
The new law imposes fines for media and non-governmental organizations that knowingly promote LGBTQ activity.
Joe Biden last month called the legislation “a tragic violation of universal human rights” and threatened aid cuts and other sanctions. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the State Department would consider visa restrictions against Ugandan officials.
America was among several nations that cut aid to Uganda in 2014 for a previous anti-LGBTQ law. That law was later struck down on procedural grounds.
UN and European officials also condemned the law. European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said the law “is contrary to international human rights law and to Uganda’s obligations under the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights, including commitments on dignity and non-discrimination, and the prohibition of cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment.”
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the law “deeply concerning”.
While it has been vocal in criticizing Uganda’s anti-gay legislation, the U.S. government said relatively little about genocide in neighboring South Sudan. South Sudan has been the site of ethnic genocide and a savage civil war, with members of its largest ethnic group, the Dinka, killing other ethnic groups such as the Nuer and the Shilluk, and members of its second largest ethnic group, the Nuer, killing Dinka. Hundreds of thousands of people have died in ethnic violence in South Sudan, and hundreds of thousands of others fled to Uganda.
