![\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3P0OQ-VIEWIMAGE\"](\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3P0OQ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nKAMPALA (Reuters) – Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has asked lawmakers to make clear in a proposed anti-homosexuality law that it is not criminal to merely identify as gay, as part of an attempt to tone down a bill that has drawn international condemnation.<\/p>\n
Last month, lawmakers in the east African country overwhelmingly passed the proposed legislation, potentially one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, and sent it to the president for approval. <\/p>\n
The planned law, or bill, criminalises a broad range of homosexual activity, including promoting or abetting the lifestyle and imposes stiff penalties including death for so called aggravated homosexuality. <\/p>\n
The law has stoked widespread criticism from human rights defenders, Western governments and corporations. <\/p>\n
Thomas Tayebwa, parliament’s deputy speaker, read to lawmakers a letter Museveni had written to the parliament’s speaker on Tuesday in which he outlined his reasons for returning the bill and what changes he wanted. <\/p>\n
In the letter Museveni said it needed to be clear and distinguish between someone who professes a homosexual lifestyle and someone who actually commits homosexuals acts. <\/p>\n
“The proposed law should be clear so that what is thought to be criminalised is not the state of one having a deviant proclivity but rather the actions of one acting on that deviancy,” Museveni wrote in the letter. <\/p>\n
“The bill should be reviewed and include a provision that clearly states … a person who is believed or alleged or suspected of being a homosexual who has not committed a sexual act with another person of the same sex does not commit an offence.”<\/p>\n
He also asked lawmakers to remove provisions that impose a duty on citizens to report acts of homosexuality because it would create “constitutional challenges” and also be a source of conflict in society.<\/p>\n
He asked lawmakers to include a provision to facilitate rehabilitation of homosexuals who voluntarily renounce the practice. The country’s deputy attorney general has also advised that a mandatory death penalty also be removed from the law. <\/p>\n
Tayebwa referred the bill back to parliament’s legal affairs committee which will process and report on it and return it to the full House for fresh debate and passage. <\/p>\n
Once it is passed again by the full House it will be returned to the president for approval. <\/p>\n
\n(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by George Obulutsa, Alexandra Hudson)<\/p>\n
![\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3P0OZ-VIEWIMAGE\"](\"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ3P0OZ-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"