HRC blasts Ugandan president as he prepares to sign anti-gay law
“Unless this bill is stopped from becoming law, lives will be destroyed, and countless people will be punished for an immutable characteristic”
— Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin, in a statement issued following the announcement that Uganda’s President, Yoweri Museveni, would sign into law the country’s anti-gay bill. The bill calls for gay Ugandans or anyone “promoting” homosexuality to be jailed, with terms up to a life sentence, and carried the death penalty as punishment in an earlier draft.
President Museveni previously stated that he would not sign the bill into law unless scientists could prove that being gay was not an innate trait. Buzzfeed reports that Museveni changed his mind after a retreat with members of his party, where he faced pressure from within the National Resistance Movement to sign the bill into law. Adding to this was a panel of party members with medical backgrounds who convinced Museveni that homosexuality was not something inborn.
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