Has the Anti-Homosexuality Bill been amended?

Vanity Fair is reporting that Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill has been amended:

Yet as the Ugandan government prepares to launch its latest anti-gay offensive, the local gay-rights movement is needed more than ever. Though widespread international criticism, especially from the United States, derailed the bill in its original form and forced Uganda to drop its death-penalty provision, parliament is set to discreetly pass amendments that would prevent all residents and local and international non-profit organizations from “promoting,” advocating, or associating any of their activities with homosexuality.
On the removal of the death penalty, I checked with Frank Mugisha, who was quoted in the article. Frank did not know anything about any such amendments or real changes to the bill. Based on what Frank said and what other sources there have not said, I believe it is premature to say the death penalty has been removed or what strategy may be pursued.
The only evidence of a change of direction I have seen and which Frank also mentioned derives from the Cabinet report authored by Minister of Local Government Adolf Mwesigye. The recommendations in that report seem to be what the Vanity Fair article refers to as a settled strategy. The Cabinet committee seemed to favor Article 13 which referred to promotion of homosexuality:
The Mwesigye report then made several recommendations to the Cabinet:
Vanity Fair seems to be assuming that the Cabinet report has been adopted although no source is given for that assumption. As of now, I know of no official amendments or revised bills. As noted by the VF article, Parliament is back in session. It is interesting to note that the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is not one of the bills slated to be considered in this session.

7 thoughts on “Has the Anti-Homosexuality Bill been amended?”

  1. I dunno, TImothy…. I can only speak for my own and it has a tasteful commode with mirror and a hand-made grandfather clock in it.

  2. Timothy,

    Leave it up to a gay man to wonder about such things!!!! (Okay – I could not resist and apologize if that offends you. I’d say the same thing to any one of my friends)

  3. Lynn David

    I’ve always wondered about that Euro-American Gay Lobby. Does it lead into the Euro-American Gay Building? What is the furniture like? Are there murals?

  4. There are already puppet pro-gay advocacy groups on the ground in Uganda and all are under the control of the Euro-American Gay Lobby.

    That’d be funny if it didn’t represent such an overtly hostile [and deluded] attitude.

    .

    So why are you so afraid of allowing the GLBT people of Uganda their (Ugandan) constitutionally-guaranteed right of free speech to discuss their lives?

  5. TYPO CORRECTION:

    ….There are other Ugandans who may disagree and FEEL that a refinement of the Bahati Bill and passing it as a whole is the best….

  6. Vanity Fair need not bother. There are already puppet pro-gay advocacy groups on the ground in Uganda and all are under the control of the Euro-American Gay Lobby. It is totally false that western pressure caused the death penalty to be dropped. Many Ugandans—myself included—opposed the death penalty and there are other clauses in the original Bahati bill that are crude and laughable. In a parliamentary debate, that bill was always going to get watered down and refined before becoming law. Personally, I think that most provisions in the bill merely duplicates the existing penal code and it may be a good idea to simply infuse the existing law with good aspects of the bill. There are other Ugandans who may disagree and saw a refinement of the Bahati Bill and passing it as a whole is the best. We will see during the upcoming parliamentary debates (Yes–Warren, we shall have the debate on the Bahati Bill when we are ready. We are not under any obligation to let any foreign lobbyist know about it in advance).

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