President Museveni has 30 days to sign, veto or send back a controversial bill to be amended after parliament sends him it.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni will meet lawmakers from his party on Thursday to discuss a strict anti-LGBTQ bill and meet a deadline to sign it, veto it or send it back to parliament Revise.
Human rights activists and the U.S. government say the bill is among the toughest legislation in the world targeting minorities.
While more than 30 African countries, including Uganda, already ban same-sex relationships, the new law passed in March appears to be the first to ban people who identify solely as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gay, Human Rights Watch said. Queer (LGBTQ) laws.
It would impose the death penalty for so-called serious homosexuality, which includes homosexual acts while HIV-positive, and 20 years in prison for “promoting” homosexuality.
Members of Uganda’s LGBTQ community say the bill, which won almost unanimous support in parliament in March, has sparked a wave of arrests, deportations and mob attacks against Uganda’s LGBTQ community.
By law, Museveni has 30 days to weigh in on the bill after parliament sends him it. The bill was passed on March 21, but it was unclear when it would be forwarded to Museveni.
The president, a vocal opponent of LGBTQ rights, called gay people “a departure from the norm” last month but gave no indication of what he intends to do.
In 2014, he signed a law that toughened the punishment for same-sex relationships, but has also sometimes suggested that homosexuality should be tackled through therapy rather than legislation. The law was annulled within months by a domestic court on procedural grounds.
Meetings with MPs from the National Resistance Movement are scheduled to begin at the presidential palace at 2pm (11:00GMT).
Same-sex relationships are already illegal in Uganda, as they are in more than 30 African countries, but supporters of the bill say stronger legislation is needed to combat homosexuality’s threat to traditional family values.
Lawmakers in neighboring Kenya and Tanzania recently called for similar measures in their countries.
