Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday described homosexual individuals as “deviants” and known as for an investigation into homosexuality as lawmakers within the conservative East African nation put together to vote on an anti-LGBT invoice.

The invoice, launched earlier this month, proposes robust new penalties for same-sex relations in a rustic the place homosexuality is already unlawful, sparking criticism from human rights teams.

In a state of the nation deal with earlier than lawmakers, Museveni, who has dominated Uganda since 1986, known as homosexual individuals deviants as MPs urged him to touch upon the brand new laws.

“The homosexuals are deviations from regular. Why? Is it by nature or nurture. We have to reply these questions,” the 78-year-old mentioned.

“We want a medical opinion on that. We will talk about it completely.”

Underneath the proposed legislation, anybody who engages in same-sex exercise or who identifies as LGBTQ might resist 10 years’ imprisonment.

The invoice comes as conspiracy theories accusing shadowy worldwide forces of selling homosexuality achieve traction on social media in Uganda.

“Western nations ought to cease losing the time of humanity by attempting to impose their practices on different individuals,” Museveni mentioned in an deal with boycotted by all however one opposition legislator.

“Europeans and different teams marry cousins and close to kin. Right here, marrying in a single’s clan is taboo. Ought to we impose sanctions on them for marrying kin? This isn’t our job,” he added.

The invoice is because of be mentioned subsequent week, with a vote doable as early as Tuesday.

Uganda is infamous for intolerance of homosexuality — which is criminalised underneath colonial-era legal guidelines — and strict Christian views on sexuality normally.

However since independence from Britain in 1962 there has by no means been a conviction for consensual same-sex exercise.

In 2014 Ugandan lawmakers handed a invoice that known as for all times in jail for individuals caught having homosexual intercourse.

A court docket later struck down the legislation on a technicality, but it surely had already sparked worldwide condemnation, some Western nations freezing or redirecting hundreds of thousands of {dollars} of presidency assist in response.

Opposition politicians boycotted Thursday’s speech to protest human rights violations, notably the unlawful detention and compelled disappearance of their supporters.

Uganda has seen a sequence of crackdowns on individuals against Museveni’s rule.

Journalists have been attacked, attorneys jailed, election screens prosecuted, the web shut down and opposition leaders muzzled.