The International AIDS Society (IAS) is deeply concerned that Uganda’s Parliament has passed anti-gay legislation that is an extreme violation of human rights and threatens to reverse the country’s progress in the HIV response. The legislation was passed on Tuesday, March 21, and the next step is for President Yoweri Museveni to sign it into law.
More than 30 African countries prohibit same-sex relationships. Ugandan law goes further, making it a crime even to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, or queer (LGBTQ+), and requiring families and friends to report people in same-sex relationships to the authorities. It imposes long prison sentences, including life imprisonment for gay sex, and the death penalty for "aggravated" homosexuality, which includes sex when the "offender" is a person living with HIV.
This legislation will only reinforce stigma and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community and hinder progress towards ensuring safe access to health services.
Criminalizing LGBTQ+ people is completely incompatible with an effective HIV response. While Uganda has made considerable progress in reducing the impact of HIV, gay men and other men who have sex with men, transgender people, and sex workers remain less likely than the general population to access HIV treatment, prevention, and care services and will be further threatened by this legislation.
In 2021, key populations (gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who inject drugs, transgender people, and sex workers) and their sexual partners accounted for 51% of new HIV acquisitions in Central, Eastern, Southern, and West Africa. This underscores the urgent need for governments in the region to work with, not against, the communities most vulnerable to HIV.
The legislation also completely contradicts President Museveni's stated support for the HIV response. UNAIDS and others praised the President when he launched the Presidential Fast Track Initiative to end HIV and AIDS in Uganda by 2030, the first such initiative globally.
The IAS calls on President Museveni to withdraw the 2023 anti-homosexuality bill and base Uganda's laws and policies on science rather than prejudice. We urge the Ugandan government to provide a legal environment that protects, rather than prosecutes, gay men and other men who have sex with men, people who use drugs, transgender people, and sex workers from safely accessing HIV and other health services.