Uganda could kill the first man charged under its “aggravated homosexuality” law

A 20-year-old Uganda man is the first to be charged under his country’s newest “aggravated homosexuality” law. The charge, also known as the “Kill the Gays” law, is an offense punishable by death.

The unnamed defendant was charged on August 18, his lawyer and prosecutors said.

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The nation’s high court said it had a “constitutional imperative” to do so.

According to a charging document seen by Reuters, the defendant “performed unlawful sexual intercourse” with a 41-year-old man. Prosecutors did not specify why the act was considered aggravated.

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Under the new law, the death penalty is applicable in cases considered “aggravated,” which include repeat offenses of homosexuality, sex that transmits a terminal illness, or same-sex intercourse with a minor, an elderly person, or a person with disabilities. Critics say that the law demonizes gay people as immoral, disease-spreading sexual predators while further isolating the country’s already marginalized LGBTQ+ community.

“Since it is a capital offense triable by the High Court, the charge was read out and explained to [the arrestee] in the Magistrate’s Court on (the) 18th and he was remanded,” Jacqueline Okui, spokesperson for the office of the director of public prosecutions, told Reuters.

Last week, four Ugandans — two women and two men — were arrested on suspicion of committing homosexual acts at a massage parlor after a “female informant” tipped off police.  

The Anti-Homosexuality Act, as the Kill the Gays law is formally known, was signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni in May, after passage through the Ugandan parliament in March. All but two of the Christian-majority nation’s 389 members of parliament voted for the bill.

Earlier this month, the World Bank announced a halt to all lending in Uganda in response to the law’s passage.

The Biden administration has ordered a review of all U.S. aid to the East African nation, in addition to issuing a travel warning to Uganda citing issues of widespread “blackmail” and “violence” in the country.

Justine Balya, an attorney for the defendant, called the law her client was charged under “unconstitutional.” A challenge to the law has yet to be taken up by the country’s High Court.

The Anti-Homosexuality Act is the second Kill the Gays law to be enacted in the country in as many decades. Like the first version, passed in 2014 and later overturned by Uganda’s High Court, the second was written and shepherded through Parliament with the help of Arizona-based Family Watch International, an organization committed to spreading anti-LGBTQ+ and anti-abortion ideology around the world, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

The group has been at work proselytizing among Ugandan lawmakers since 2009.