Tell US Govt to Oppose Uganda's Anti-Gay Legislation to Save Lives

Save Lives in Uganda by Opposing Anti-Gay Legislation

Dear Decision Maker,

You may have learned about the Ugandan government's proposed anti-gay legislation up for a vote in the coming year. The Change.org community strongly believes you can help save hundreds if not thousands of lives by applying pressure, leveraging foreign aid and oil investment, to oppose this legislation.

This action is vital not only for gay rights, but to preserve the great advances of HIV/AIDS control, prevent suffering, and avoid the flow of refugees. The legislation makes homosexuality a crime. One could be penalized for renting to someone who is homosexual, for testing positive for HIV/AIDS, and other possibilities. There is even the possibility that homosexuality could be punishable by execution.

This kind of law already lies on the law books of many nations in the Islamic world, but in Uganda this is very different. It is a sudden change and includes the possibility that someone could be punished when going to get tested for HIV/AIDS. Therefore, the potential law would lead not only to killings, jailings, refugee flows, but would also dramatically slow the control of the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Sweden has already considered leveraging aid funding to prevent this legislation. The US has the power not only to put pressure on Uganda with aid funding, but potentially also with the oil industry.

Please save lives and civil rights, protect the progress of HIV/AIDS prevention, and catch this as early as possible before momentum leads to similar laws and similar human rights and humanitarian challenges to life and public health in other countries.

[Your name]