The Parliament of Uganda has passed a new anti-gay bill that tightens the country’s existing ban on sex between people of the same sex. The Sexual Offenses Bill was approved by lawmakers on Monday with the seemingly laudable intention of the “effectual prevention of sexual violence”.
It addresses issues such as rape and child sex trafficking. However, the bill also criminalises same-sex sexual acts that are already illegal under the country’s colonial-era penal code which describes these as “carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature”.
The new legislation goes further by defining what is meant by “carnal knowledge against the order of nature”. Clause 11 of the bill explicitly outlaws “The penetration of another person’s