Help us stop Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill

Imagine meeting someone, falling in love, wanting to start a life together. But knowing that doing this could mean being imprisoned for life. Because the person you love is the same sex as you.

This could be the future for anyone suspected of being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or intersex (LGBTI) in Uganda. A new Bill being debated soon will punish individuals for their sexual orientation. If passed, this law will institutionalise discrimination against the LGBTI community, and already widespread hate crimes against homosexuality may become the norm – and indeed reinforced by Ugandan law.

And this might not even be the worst version of Uganda’s future. Politicians have in the past proposed execution simply for having consensual sex with someone you love. It’s not yet clear if the death penalty for ‘aggravated homosexuality’ has been removed from the Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

Horrified? Disgusted? We are.

Late last week we asked you to email President Museveni, Prime Minister Mbabazi and Nathan Mafabi, the Leader of the Opposition to say just that, and an amazing 15,000 of you have so far. The good news is that we know the authorities are feeling the pressure, as President Museveni and the Leader of the Opposition have blocked your emails from their inboxes.

The Ugandan Parliament will be debating the Bill soon, and we can’t let the pressure slip. Prime Minister Mbabazi is very active on twitter, and we need you to send him a tweet and ask him to do the right thing. We can stop this hatred if we keep up the pressure.

Tweet @AmamaMbabazi and ask him to #StopTheHate

To send a tweet, just choose the message you want to send and press the ‘tweet’ button. Or, if you prefer, write your own, just include @AmamaMbabazi and #StopTheHate – please be polite and constructive!

Tweet Please respect human rights, @AmamaMbabazi. Don’t support the Anti-Homosexuality Bill in Uganda #StopTheHate !function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

Tweet Please don’t sanction hate and discrimination @AmamaMbabazi - condemn the Anti-Homosexuality Bill! #StopTheHate

Tweet .@AmamaMbabazi Homophobia, not homosexuality, is the real danger in Uganda. Please #StopTheHate and stop the Bill

And please share this blog to encourage your friends to take part

Tweet

window.___gcfg = {lang: 'en-GB'};

(function() {
var po = document.createElement('script'); po.type = 'text/javascript'; po.async = true;
po.src = 'https://apis.google.com/js/plusone.js';
var s = document.getElementsByTagName('script')[0]; s.parentNode.insertBefore(po, s);
})();

Send an email as well

If you haven’t already, join the 15,000 and send an email asking the Prime Minster to block this bill. And if you’ve already taken action, ask your friends to take just 2 minutes and do their part.

With enough international pressure, we’ve a chance to persuade the authorities to stop this Bill – we helped stopped this Bill before. Don’t let it slip through now.