Uganda's President Will "Go To War" Over New Anti-LGBTQ+ Bill

Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni has declared that he will go to war to protect the country's anti-LGBTQ+ bill passed this week. "The NRM (National Resistance Movement) has never had two languages," he said in a statement released by his office on Wednesday, "What we tell you in the day is what we shall say to you at night. The signing of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill is finished; nobody will move us, and we should be ready for a war. Remember, war is not for the soft." Museveni made an onslaught of chaotic comments when he met with lawmakers from his ruling party this week, as he continues to defend signing one of the world's harshest anti-LGBTQ+ bills to date.

In March, the Ugandan government signed a bill making it illegal for citizens to identify as members of the LGBTQ+ community, even giving authority the right to target gay Ugandans and sentence them to death. In April, Museveni claimed that he would not sign the newest iteration until it included "rehabilitation measures" for LGBTQ+ Ugandans. Now, the president claims to have consulted experts on whether homosexuality is a result of genetics, and his findings reported that it is instead a "psychological disorientation." In his address to the NRM, Museveni said, "The problem is that, yes, you are disoriented. You have got a problem for yourself. Now, don't try to recruit others. If you try to recruit people into a disorientation, then we go for you. We punish you."

"But secondly," he continued, "If you violently grab some children and you rape them and so on and so forth, we kill you. And that one I totally support, and I will support.” The law imposes a life sentence for same-sex intercourse, and a 20-year sentence for, "the promotion of homosexuality." Capital punishment is also emphasized for "serial offenders,", the transmission of terminal illnesses like HIV/AIDS through same-sex fornication, and for having same-sex relations with a person with a disability.

Uganda's obsession with people's bedroom activities has landed them in hot water with countries around the world. Western Countries have outwardly criticized Museveni's anti-human rights bill, with U.S. President Joe Biden threatening to impose sanctions and cut aid to Uganda. In a televised appearance on Thursday, the president boldly declared, "If they cut aid, we shall sit down and discipline our expenditure, and cut down our budgets.