However, Museveni has not yet signed the bill into law and he sent it back to the parliament for amendments.
The Ugandan parliament passed an Anti-LGBTQ+ bill that has raised so much controversy.
IBrandTV reports that the legislation would make identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer, a criminal offence.
Several organisations and international companies have spoken against this bill, including the coalition of international companies that includes Google and Microsoft.
However, Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni does not oppose the bill and he reportedly has plans to finalise it next week.
Uganda’s ruling party, the National Resistance Movement (NRM), revealed President Museveni’s plans to finalise the bill.
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“President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has congratulated the members of parliament for their stand on homosexuality and agreed to assent to the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, 2023 into law,” NRM says.
However, Museveni has not yet signed the bill into law and he sent it back to the parliament for amendments.
The Bill And Amendments
As soon as the details of the bill were reported, international bodies started condemning the bill.
The United Nations, the European Union, the United States Secretary of State, and others also condemned it.
This week, scientists and academics signed an open letter urging Museveni to veto the bill.
However, NRM chief whip Denis Hamson Obua says that the anti-LGBTQ+ bill has “in principle” been supported unanimously by the NRM parliamentary caucus.
According to Obua, “all the punishment contained therein in regards to the promotion of homosexuality, to recruitment of homosexuals, to publicising homosexuality is upheld”.
Also, the NRM says President Museveni has proposed the bill be amended to offer amnesty “for those who will have come out to be helped not to punish them”.
“Since we have agreed now, I’m going to return that bill, and you quickly deal with those issues and we sign it,” Museveni was quoted to have said.
Also, President Museveni is expected to meet the legal affairs committee of parliament and other parties next week to finalise the bill.
