Archbishop Stanley Ntagali has endorsed popular calls for Uganda’s parliament to reinstate the Anti-Homosexuality Act

The Primate of the Church of Uganda, Archbishop Stanley Ntagali, has endorsed popular calls for the country’s parliament to reinstate the Anti-Homosexuality Act — a law passed in February that toughened the nation’s sodomy laws. During a forum following church services in Masaka on 26 Oct 2014, the member of parliament for the district, Mathias Mpuuga, urged the Anglican leader to use his influence with President Yoweri Museveni to bring the bill back before the legislature. In August the country’s Supreme Court struck down the bill, finding that there had not been a quorum of MPs in the house when it was presented for vote. A member of the rule National Resistance Movement party Medard Bitekyerezo told reporters after the court ruling President Museveni “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.” The law has widespread domestic support, but has been attacked by overseas rights groups and governments. The archbishop said he supported bringing the bill back before parliament, and was quoted by the local media as saying: “When all religious leaders congratulated Parliament for passing the law and President Museveni for signing it, we were not wasting time; but we were rather serious and meaning what we were talking about.”