By Executive Editor

Outgoing United States ambassador to Uganda, Natalie Brown, has said that the U.S. government views Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act of 2023 as “a human rights issue.”

Brown’s comment as she leaves Uganda comes weeks after the World Bank halted any new funding to Uganda over the Act.

Explaining why the Act is an issue, Brown says, “Everyone deserves the right to equal respect and dignity under the law.”

“Laws like the Anti-Homosexuality Act (AHA) result in ordinary individuals treating others inhumanely. As the AHA is written, any citizen, visiting tourist, foreign investor, or foreign official could be arrested for having a private, consensual relationship. In addition, anyone who assists the LGBTQ+ community with needed healthcare could be prosecuted under the AHA. Here in Uganda and elsewhere around the world, homosexuality is conflated with pedophilia, but they are very different things. Every day I read media reports about children who are abused by adults into whose care they have been entrusted. These children’s lives are forever changed, and for the young girls who become parents too early in life, this abuse deprives them and their children of opportunities. Unfortunately, many abusers escape without punishment. Pedophilia is a crime that should be condemned and prosecuted. Who you love should not be a crime,” she explains.

President Yoweri Museveni recently said Uganda will develop with or without loans.