Ugandan lawmakers in campaign to revive gay law
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Ugandan parliamentarians are launching a campaign to revive a recently invalidated anti-gay measure and hope to have it passed within weeks, a lawmaker said Wednesday.
About 150 lawmakers have promised to vote in support of the bill when parliament emerges from a recess later this month, said parliamentarian Latif Ssebaggala, who is collecting signatures from lawmakers who support the anti-gay measure.
Ssebaggala said he was treating the anti-gay measure as a “national priority” after a Ugandan court last week declared it illegal because it was passed during a parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.
The Constitutional Court didn’t rule on the substance of the law, so lawmakers are now able to reintroduce the same legislation, which allows for jail terms of up to life for homosexual offenses. Although the law had wide support among Ugandans, activists and watchdog group called the measure draconian and said it was unnecessary in a country where homosexuality had long been banned.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/08/06/ugandan_lawmakers_in_campaign_to_revive_gay_law/
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