Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

On October 14th 2009, Uganda's parliament tabled a draft bill making homosexuality a crime. Ever since the passing of this Bill, there have been international debates on the preservation of human rights as most feel that this Bill violates those rights. The most recent attempt has been by the president of the U.S, Barrack Obama, who has been trying to get the Uganda's government to withdraw and overthrow the draft.

In the existing law, Section 140 of the Ugandan penal code, penalizes "carnal knowledge of any person against the order of nature" with imprisonment of up to 14 years, while the draft bill seeks to imprison anyone convicted of "the offense of homosexuality" for life and paragraph 3 of the draft bill sets out provisions on what it names as "aggravated homosexuality," which will incur the death penalty.

My view on this is that it is high time all countries across the globe legalise homosexuality in accordance with the human rights laws. It is only fare that an individual be given the liberty to freely express his or her sexuality without any prejudice. A lot of people who are for this motion argue that homosexuality goes beyond human nature & that it goes against God's creation. But they neglect the fact that most things that we do and practice these days are beyond human nature. With the rapid development of technology and other man-made objects it is not fair to table the argument of nature. And also let us be aware that sexuality is the most human nature that every person is born with, given that we do not choose to be gay or heterosexual because we do not control our bodies neither do we our feelings.

In many countries where homosexuality is considered a crime, a lot of people end up marrying those of the opposite gender just to please their families & the government when in actual sense they have no feelings for those people. Others are forced to have secret relations with the fear of being exposed.

The discussion on passing of the Bill in Uganda is set for late February or early March and one can only hope that the government will do the right thing and withdraw this Bill and offer their citizens the right to be human!!!