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The world begins to react. But the U.S. has yet to detail what it will do.
Stringer / Reuters
Ugandan LGBT activist Claire Byarygaba decided to lock her door and avoid work today after Uganda's president signed into law a harsh anti-gay bill that western countries have strongly condemned and LGBT rights groups say calls for a review of Uganda's international agreements and aid programs.
"We are very worried about our safety," Byarygaba, who works at the Civil Society Coalition on Human Rights and Constitutional Law, told BuzzFeed by phone from Kampala. "It's one thing for people to threaten you, and it's another thing to have a law that discriminates against you and prosecutes you."
"The president has basically declared war with the west," she added.
In a televised ceremony on Monday, President Yoweri Museveni signed into law a controversial bill that imposes a lifetime jail sentence for homosexuality and criminalizes those who promote LGBT rights, among other measures.
The Ugandan parliament passed the law in Dec. 2013, after considering several versions of the bill, which was first proposed in 2009. An earlier version made homosexuality punishable by death.
Museveni signed the bill after months of conflicting statements, as he appeared to waffle between signing the bill, which has wide political support in Uganda, or vetoing it, as the US and other western countries have demanded. Uganda already had some of the world's toughest LGBT restrictions, in place since colonial British rule, and the government often equates anti-LGBT and anti-western rhetoric.
"Can somebody be homosexual simply by nature? The answer is no," Museveni told reporters as he signed the legislation. For a while, he had sought "scientific reviews" to investigate whether homosexuality was innate or a choice, arguing that the former did not "deserve" to be punished. Activists said it was another means of waffling.
Museveni warned critics on Monday. "I advise friends from the West not to make this an issue because if they make it an issue the more they will lose," he said. "This is social imperialism. To impose social values of one group on our society."
Human rights groups and world leaders from EU Foreign Affairs Representative Catherine Ashton to South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu harshly criticized the move. The White House issued a statement calling the bill a "step backward" for Ugandan human rights and said it complicated US-Uganda relations. Secretary of State John Kerry called for an "internal review of our relationship with the Government of Uganda to ensure that all dimensions of our engagement, including assistance programs, uphold our anti-discrimination policies and principles and reflect our values."
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