Uganda anti-gay law protest takes place outside London embassy

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Dozens of people gathered outside the Ugandan High Commission on Trafalgar Square, central London, on Monday to demonstrate against the country’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality Bill.

The International Federation for Human Rights is concerned by the speeding up of the voting process of the bill which could be passed by Christmas.

It stipulates the death penalty for repeat gay offenders and is currently before the Ugandan Parliament.

The protest was organised by the UK Consortium on AIDS and International Development, with the support of the Kaleidoscope Trust and the Peter Tatchell Foundation.

It called on Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, and his parliamentarians, to reject the bill and to stop persecuting LGBT people.

A letter of protest was handed in to the High Commission.

“We stand in solidarity with Ugandan lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people against the draconian Anti-Homosexuality Bill,” said Peter Tatchell.

“It is probably the world’s most harsh and comprehensively homophobic law – even more severe than the extreme anti-gay laws of countries like Saudi Arabia and Iran.”

Last week, Archbishop Desmond Tutu called on Uganda to scrap the bill and declared it was “unjust”.