Uganda MP David Bahati asserts that
“homosexuality is a not a human right” as lawmakers attempt to
revive an anti-gay law.
Last week, the nation's Constitutional
Court struck down the law, saying that it was approved during a
parliamentary session that lacked a quorum.
Lawmakers behind a campaign to revive
the measure, which calls for life imprisonment for the crime of
“aggravated homosexuality” and bans the “promotion of
homosexuality,” hope to have it passed in a few weeks.
Parliamentarian Latif Ssebaggala said
Wednesday that he has collected the signatures of about 150 lawmakers
who have promised to vote in support of the measure when parliament
returns to work later this month.
Speaking to Buzzfeed.com, MP David
Bahati, the bill's original sponsor, insisted the law was needed to
protect children. A colonial-era law criminalizing gay
sex remains on the books.
“Whether it's tomorrow or a week or a
month, we will take whatever time is required to make sure that the
future of our children is protected, the family is protected, and the
sovereignty of the nation is protected,” Bahati
said. “The issues of technicalities is not a big deal to
anybody. But the big deal … is that homosexuality is not a human
right here in Uganda.”
(Related: Obama's
priority “is advancing homosexualism,' Martin Ssempa claims after
anti-gay bill's fall.)