Ugandan MP denied US visa after calls for homosexual castrations
The United States Embassy in Kampala has denied Ugandan MP a visa to attend a UN meeting in New York.
Sarah Achieng Opendi had proposed during a parliamentary debate on the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ+ laws that homosexuals be castrated to prevent them from further engaging in their activities within the country.
The MP who’s also chair of Uganda Women Parliamentary Association proposed an amendment to the country’s anti-LGBTQ+ bill adopted by the country in March 2023.
Following this, Opendi’s application to travel to the 68th session of the Commission on the Status of Women in the US was rejected pending administrative review.
“Ninety-six percent of MPs voted in favour of the bill and I am aware of a number of MPs that have gotten visas to the US yet they supported the bill,” Opendi was quoted by The Guardian.
In December last year, hundreds of Ugandan lawmakers and their families suffered visa rejections over their involvement in the legislation, signed into law by President Yoweri Museveni, which imposes the death penalty or life imprisonment for certain same-sex acts and sentences of up to 20 years for “recruitment, promotion and funding” of same-sex "activities.”
Parliamentary Speaker Anita Among was also denied US and UK denied visas in the same year.
The Guardian reports that though the Embassy’s spokesperson said individual visa cases cannot be discussed, “the denial of a visa is a strong statement against those spreading hatred. I hope it sends a firm message that such individuals have no place in civilised societies,” he was quoted.
