Uganda passes bill banning identifying as LGBTQ2S+

KAMPALA -

Uganda's parliament on Tuesday passed a law that criminalizes identifying as LGBTQ2S+, handing authorities broad powers to target Ugandans who already face legal discrimination and mob violence.

More than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relations. The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ), according to rights group Human Rights Watch.

Supporters of the new law say it is needed to punish a broader array of LGBTQ2S+ activities, which they say threaten traditional values in the conservative and religious East African nation.

In addition to same-sex intercourse, the law bans promoting and abetting homosexuality as well as conspiracy to engage in homosexuality.

Violations under the law draw steep penalties including death for so called aggravated homosexuality and life in prison for gay sex. Aggravated homosexuality involves gay sex with people under 18 years old or when the perpetrator is HIV positive, among other categories, according to the law.

"Our creator God is happy (about) what is happening... I support the bill to protect the future of our children," said lawmaker David Bahati during debate on the bill.

"This is about the sovereignty of our nation, nobody should blackmail us, nobody should intimidate us."

The legislation will be sent to President Yoweri Museveni to be signed into law.

Museveni has not commented on the current proposal but he has long opposed LGBTQ2S+rights and signed an anti-LGBTQ2S+ law in 2013 that Western countries condemned before a domestic court struck it down on procedural grounds.

In recent weeks Uganda authorities have cracked down on LGBTQ2S+ individuals after religious leaders and politicians alleged students were being recruited into homosexuality in schools.

This month, authorities arrested a secondary school teacher in the eastern Ugandan district of Jinja over accusations of "grooming of young girls into unnatural sex practices."

She was subsequently charged with gross indecency and is in prison awaiting trial.

The police said on Monday they had arrested six people accused of running a network that was "actively involved in the grooming of young boys into acts of sodomy."

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Aaron Ross, Hereward Holland and Josie Kao)