Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni signs an anti-homosexual bill into law at the state house in Entebbe, 36 km (22 miles) southwest of the capital Kampala February 24, 2014. 
 
 WASHINGTON The United States on Thursday cut aid to Uganda, imposed visa restrictions and canceled a regional military exercise in response to a Ugandan law that imposes harsh penalties on homosexuality. 
 
 The White House said in a statement the measures were intended to "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity." 
 
 Homosexuality is taboo in most African countries and illegal in 37, including in Uganda where it has been a crime since British rule. 
 
 Uganda's new law, signed by President Yoweri Museveni in February, imposes jail terms of up to life for "aggravated homosexuality" which includes homosexual sex with a minor or while HIV-positive. 
 
 Widely condemned by donor countries, the law also criminalizes lesbianism for the first time and makes it a crime to help individuals engage in homosexual acts. 
 
 Western donors, including the United States, had halted or re-directed about $118 million in aid to the east African nation's economy before Thursday's announcement. 
 
 The White House said on Thursday the United States would impose visa restrictions on Ugandans it believes have been involved in human rights violations, including gay rights. 
 
 The United States will halt $2.4 million in funding for a Ugandan community policing program in light of a police raid on a U.S.-funded health program at Makerere University and reports of people detained and abused while in police custody. 
 
 In addition, Washington will shift some funding for salaries and travel expenses of Ugandan health ministry employees to non-governmental agencies involved in health programs. 
 
 It will also reallocate $3 million in funding for a planned national public health institute in Uganda to another African country, which it did not name. A National Institutes of Health genomics meeting would be moved from Uganda to South Africa, the White House said. 
 
 It also canceled plans for a U.S.-sponsored military exercise in Uganda that was meant to include other East African countries. A date had not yet been set for the exercise. 
 
 Uganda is a key Western ally in the fight against Islamic extremism in Somalia, where Ugandan troops for the backbone of the African Union force battling al Qaeda-aligned militants. 
 
 U.S. special forces have also been involved in the hunt for Joseph Kony, the elusive rebel commander seeking to topple the Ugandan government. Kony is believed to be hiding in the jungles of central Africa. 
 
 In Kampala, a government official asked about the U.S. measures said that Uganda would not alter its decision to toughen laws against homosexuals. 
 
 "Uganda is a sovereign country and can never bow to anybody or be blackmailed by anybody on a decision it took in its interests, even if it involves threats to cut off all financial assistance," government spokesman Ofwono Opondo said. 
 
 U.S. President Barack Obama previously told Museveni the law would complicate relations between the two countries. Since then Washington has been reviewing its funding to Uganda, while privately pressing Museveni's government to repeal the law. 
 
 (Additional reporting by Elias Biryabarema in Kampala; Editing by Doina Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman) ||||| Story highlights U.S. pulls funding from Uganda's government 
 
 Move is in response to Uganda's anti-gay law 
 
 Washington also cancels a planned military exercise 
 
 Uganda's President signed measure earlier this year 
 
 Uganda's government institutions will lose U.S. funding as punishment for a law signed earlier this year by President Yoweri Museveni that makes some homosexual acts punishable by life in prison. 
 
 In addition, the White House said Thursday that Washington will cancel a planned military exercise with Uganda and deny entry to certain Ugandan citizens, including those "involved in serious human rights abuses, including against LGBT individuals." 
 
 The United States will not end its humanitarian support for Uganda or its cooperation to stamp out the Lord's Resistance Army, led by the elusive Joseph Kony 
 
 "We will seek to advance these interests even as we continue -- in Uganda and around the world -- to oppose discriminatory practices and champion human rights for all," read the statement by White House National Security Council spokeswoman Caitlin Hayden. 
 
 Uganda's anti-homosexuality act, first introduced in 2009, originally included a death penalty clause for some such acts. It was briefly shelved when Britain and other European nations threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda, which relies on millions of dollars from the international community. 
 
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 Museveni signed the bill into law in February, two months after Uganda's Parliament passed it after replacing a death penalty provision with a proposal of life in prison for "aggravated homosexuality." This includes acts in which one person is infected with HIV, "serial offenders" and sex with minors, according to Amnesty International. 
 
 The law calls for the imprisonment of those who counsel or reach out to gays and lesbians -- a provision that would ensnare rights groups and others providing services to lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people. 
 
 Museveni's position on the law changed several times before he signed it. 
 
 At one point, he said he wouldn't sign the bill, describing homosexuals as "sick" people who needed help, not imprisonment. 
 
 He said he changed his mind after scientists had determined that there is no gene for homosexuality and that it is merely a choice to embrace abnormal behavior. ||||| Uganda adopts draconian anti-gay bill 
 
 By Grace Matsiko (AFP) – Dec 20, 2013 
 
 Kampala — Uganda's parliament on Friday adopted an anti-homosexuality bill that will see repeat offenders jailed for life, with lawmakers hailing it as a victory against "evil". 
 
 Deputies voted overwhelmingly in favour of the text, which has been widely condemned by rights activists and world leaders -- with US President Barack Obama describing it as "odious" and Nobel Peace laureate archbishop Desmond Tutu comparing it to apartheid. 
 
 The lawmaker behind the bill, David Bahati, said a death penalty clause was dropped from the final version of the bill. The approved text must now be given the green light by President Yoweri Museveni, himself a devout evangelical Christian. 
 
 "This is a victory for Uganda. I am glad the parliament has voted against evil," Bahati told AFP. 
 
 "Because we are a God-fearing nation, we value life in a holistic way. It is because of those values that members of parliament passed this bill regardless of what the outside world thinks," he said. 
 
 First proposed in 2009, the bill had been shelved following international condemnation, but parliamentary spokeswoman Hellen Kaweesa said the changes meant that it had secured "majority support" among MPs. 
 
 "Now anybody found practising, recruiting for or publicising homosexuality commits a felony," said Simon Lokodo, Uganda's Minister of State for Ethics and Integrity. 
 
 He added that the law provided for punishments of between two years and life behind bars. 
 
 An early version of the bill would have introduced the death sentence for anyone caught engaging in homosexual acts for a second time, as well as for gay sex where one partner is a minor or has HIV. 
 
 "We think this is an achievement for Uganda because the minors will be protected and the innocents will be saved from abuse and molestation," Lokodo said. 
 
 "We will get hold of all those encouraging others to become homosexuals or lesbians. Anybody we find recruiting or using materials to promote homosexuality, we will arrest." 
 
 Homophobia is widespread in Uganda, where American-style evangelical Christianity is on the rise. Gay men and women in the country face frequent harassment and threats of violence, and rights activists have also reported cases of lesbians being subjected to "corrective" rapes. 
 
 In 2011, prominent Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato was bludgeoned to death at his home after a newspaper splashed photos, names and addresses of gays in Uganda on the front page along with a yellow banner reading "Hang Them". 
 
 Anti-pornography bill 
 
 While homosexuality was already illegal, the new bill stiffens penalties and also criminalises the public promotion of homosexuality -- including discussions by rights groups. 
 
 After the vote, Ugandan gay activist Frank Mugisha declared himself "officially illegal" and also "outraged and disappointed". 
 
 "This is a truly terrifying day for human rights in Uganda," he said. "It will open a new era of fear and persecution. If this law is signed by President Museveni, I'd be thrown in jail for life and in all likelihood killed. 
 
 "We urgently need world leaders to call on President Museveni and demand he stops this bill of hate from becoming law." 
 
 Leslie Lefkow of Human Rights Watch said the law was "abhorrent". 
 
 "The bill?s provision on the criminalisation of 'promotion' is a direct attack on the legitimate work of national and international activists and organisations working to defend and promote human rights in Uganda," HRW added in a statement. 
 
 Amnesty International said the "wildly discriminatory legislation" was "a grave assault on human rights". 
 
 One Ugandan MP, Fox Odoi, was also critical. 
 
 "Fundamentally there is the human rights issue. It's a bad law and it doesn't serve any useful purpose," he said. 
 
 "If a man has sex with a woman and penetrates her anus, there's supposed to be nothing wrong with that. How can you apply two different standards to what is much the same thing? I can't quite understand that." 
 
 The vote also comes a day after the Ugandan parliament passed an anti-pornography and dress-code law that bans anything that is deemed sexually suggestive. 
 
 "Anybody that dresses in very short skirt or a very opened shirt that allows people to see the breast, anybody that dresses in a way that we can see the buttocks, is condemned by this law," Lokodo said. 
 
 It also outlaws "any erotic behaviour intended to cause sexual excitement or any indecent act or behaviour tending to corrupt morals". 
 
 In 2008, former ethics and integrity minister James Nsaba Buturo tried to pass similar legislation claiming a woman wearing provocative clothing risked causing traffic accidents by distracting drivers. 
 
 President Museveni caused an uproar in 2012 when he told female school students to "keep a padlock on your private parts until the time comes to open them when you have a husband." 
 
 In addition to outlawing "provocative" clothing, the anti-pornography bill will result in scantily dressed performers being banned from Ugandan television. It will also closely monitor what individuals watch on the Internet. 
 
 A British man, Bernard Randall, is currently facing trial in Uganda and a possible two-year sentence if convicted for "trafficking obscene publications" after police found pictures of him having gay sex. 
 
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– Uganda's harsh new anti-gay law—which makes "aggravated homosexuality" punishable by life in prison—is costing the country: The US yesterday cut aid to Uganda over it, and didn't stop there. It slapped visa restrictions on Ugandans believed by the US to have been involved in human rights violations or corruption, the AP reports; a planned National Institutes of Health meeting will be moved from Uganda to South Africa; and a planned military exercise with Uganda has been axed. Among the aid cuts: $2.4 million that was meant to fund a Ugandan community policing program has been halted, and $3 million planned to fund a national public health institute will be reallocated to another unnamed African country. The moves "reinforce our support for human rights of all Ugandans regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity," the White House said in a statement, according to Reuters. But a government spokesperson in Uganda was unswayed: "Uganda is a sovereign country and can never bow to anybody or be blackmailed by anybody on a decision it took in its interests, even if it involves threats to cut off all financial assistance," he says. And Uganda has experienced more than threats: Before yesterday's announcement it had already seen $118 million in aid from Western donors pulled. The US will continue its involvement in the hunt for Joseph Kony, CNN notes.