The World Bank has declared its intention to suspend providing new loans to Uganda due to the country’s controversial anti-LGBTQ legislation.
The Washington, DC-based lender said it would pause project financing pending a review of measures it introduced to protect sexual and gender minorities from discrimination and exclusion in its projects.
“Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Act fundamentally contradicts the World Bank Group’s values,” the World Bank said in a statement.
It emphasized that its vision “includes everyone irrespective of race, gender, or sexuality”.
The Ugandan parliament recently enacted some of the most comprehensive anti-LGBTQ laws in the world.
Even though same-sex acts were already forbidden in Uganda, lawmakers decided to outlaw the so-called promotion of gay identity on Tuesday night.
The anti-homosexuality bill was overwhelmingly approved by lawmakers in a crowded chamber, with only two of the nearly 400 representatives voting against it.
“Congratulations,” said Speaker Anita Among. “Whatever we are doing, we are doing it for the people of Uganda.”
Laws from the British colonial era made same-sex acts illegal in Uganda, but this new legislation goes much further.
The death penalty may be applied to so-called aggravated homosexuality, which includes having sex with an HIV-positive person. The law would also punish those who identify as gay or queer, as well as perhaps individuals or groups who are thought to support or promote LGBTQ identity.
Activists and civil rights organizations in the nation have harshly criticized the law.
Ugandan LGBTQ activist Richard Lusimbo told NPR “the LGBTQI community has basically been told, you can’t raise your head, you can’t be seen, you can’t be heard”
However, Lusimbo, like many others, believes that pressure from both inside and outside the nation led to the passage of this legislation. From the very start, this whole bill coming into Uganda was because of, for example, American evangelicals who would come to Uganda. And what’s happening in Uganda is not just in isolation.”
More than 30 of the 54 nations in Africa have laws against homosexuality.
