Museveni to water down anti-gay law

The original version of the law passed in February punished g ay s ex with long prison terms and alarmed Western donors, some of whom withheld aid in protest. Uganda's Constitutional Court overturned the law on a technicality this month. 'We agreed to come up with a new version that doesn't hurt our Western friends but also protects Ugandans,' legislator Medard Bitekyerezo is quoted as saying. Both the ruling National Resistance Movement (NRM) and the opposition vowed to reintroduce the law after the Constitutional Court ruled it had been passed without the presence of the required number of MPs in parliament. Bitekyerezo said Museveni told an NRM meeting that he backed its return, in a limited form. 'He said he wants the law back in the house but now says if two consenting adults go into their room and decide to be stupid, let them be,' Bitekyerezo said, according to the report. Full BDlive report

When the Anti-Homosexuality Act was overturned, rights activists around the world celebrated. However, according to a report on the seattlepi.com site, gay Ugandans who fled persecution to live in a refugee camp in neighbouring Kenya had little to cheer about. 'I thought it would be a celebration, but, nothing,' said Brizan Ogollan, founder of an aid organisation that works in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp. 'You can overrule the law, but you can't overrule the mind.' Since the law was first proposed in 2009, public sentiment in Uganda has grown increasingly anti-gay, said Geoffrey Ogwaro, a co-ordinator for the Civil Society Coalition for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. Many gay Ugandans have lived in constant fear of arrest. 'Unfortunately, the law's nullification has actually polarised society more,' Ogwaro is quoted in the report as saying. Full report on the seattlepi.com site