By Paschal Norbert
NAIROBI, JUNE, 6, 2023 (CISA) – Termed one of the harshest anti-LGBTQ laws in the world, the Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 continues to draw criticism from a section of world leaders and international organizations, a move which a local lawmaker says is ill-formed.
According to Dr Nicholas Kamara, the member of parliament for Kabale Municipality, Uganda, the bill was a reflection of what the people want and does impose a death penalty as the world is meant to believe.
“We represent the people of Uganda as parliamentarians. What we did was to find a balance, of course, there was a death penalty for someone who was LGBTQ but it was removed. What we are emphasizing in that bill is for the people who are promoting in schools. We got information that there were people who were being given money either through the teachers or students to promote being gay or being lesbian and also promote accepting issues that when you are born a man but you feel you are a woman, you are free and when you are born a lady and you feel you are man, you are free to change, since you believe you are a lady,” stated the legislator.
Dr Kamara, a medical doctor and a former seminarian says the legislation is solely to deal with people who want to promote LGBTQ issues in Uganda and to protect children from harmful practices detrimental to their growth and future.
He explains, “What I know is that this is a bill that is going to be changed many times but as of now, we have passed this bill representing the views of our people and mainly to stop people from promoting being gay among our children and also promoting aggravated sex among the gay people.”
“Aggravated is like somebody having HIV and then they rape someone and spread the virus, that is also in our law. So, it is going to be just a matter of time, we shall find a balance. For now, the main thing is promotion. If you promote we shall arrest you even if you promote heterosexual sex in our schools, we shall arrest you. We still believe that apart from a few instances, we have two genders, which are male and female” he says.
Dr Kamara also faulted US President Joe Biden for hurrying to sign off on a statement condemning the anti-homosexuality act without understanding its contents. He says the May 29 statement, which labelled the act “a tragic violation of universal human rights,” and accuses the Ugandan government of persecuting gay people is misinformed.
“I read Biden’s message and it was totally untrue, it was full of lies. I don’t know who deceived him since he signed it quickly, the next day, after our bill was passed and said; I have heard that as of now the LGBTQ are being persecuted and are hiding, they can no longer go to hospitals…it was totally untrue. They could not even bring out an example of who has been persecuted,” says Dr Kamara.
The legislator posits the decision by President Biden to direct the National Security Council “to evaluate the implications of this law on all aspects of U.S. engagement with Uganda, including our ability to safely deliver services under the U.S. President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) and other forms of assistance and investments,” is calamitous to the over one million Ugandans living with HIV.
“In my view, these people are not going to be persecuted, they are going to be arrested if they start paying money to promote these things. Secondly, I don’t know how stopping drugs for patients on ARVs is related to being gay. Is it the people who have HIV who signed the bill? Why don’t they stop the money to parliament or to the president or somewhere that they are giving? I don’t find the connection between stopping money to buy drugs for one million people who are on ARVs to pay for something they did not do. These are HIV patients who are on ARVs and the other people are gay. Are all HIV people gay? Are they the ones who signed the bill?” He lamented.
Dr Kamara is convinced that together with other parliamentarians they made the right decision.
He says, “I do not know why the USA wants to cause a genocide by stopping one million people from taking ARVs. We shall continue talking to them and probably find a balance. There is another court case which has come up saying that the bill was passed and it infringes on rights but for us, we are still convinced we have done the right thing. We do not want our children to be born male and then they just say they are female. We want this bill to be implemented and mainly to stop the promotion of LGBTQ.”
