🌏 Uganda Will Now Jail People For Life For Having Gay Sex, Japan's Same-Sex Marriage Ban Found Unconstitutional And More

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Uganda has passed a law that jails people for life – and in some cases, sentences them to death – for having gay sex.

Homosexuality is already illegal in Uganda, but the law further cracks down on being LGBTQ in the deeply conservative and religious country.

Under the law, people who have gay sex would face life imprisonment and just attempting same-sex relations could result in seven years in prison.

People who commit “aggravated homosexuality”, which involves having gay sex while being HIV positive or with people under the age of 18, could face the death penalty.

People under 18 who are found to be LGBTQ could be jailed for three years and have to undergo a period of “rehabilitation”.

Friends, family and members of the community also have a duty to report people in same-sex relationships to the authorities.

Not only that, people who “promote” homosexuality could be jailed for 20 years.

The law is one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws.

Also Happening Around The World

🇮🇳 Three trains collided in India and at least 295 people are dead and more than 1,175 injured. The disaster is the worst train accident in the country in two decades.

🇯🇵 Japan’s prime minister fired his own son after he held a party at their official residence and caused a controversy.

🇬🇾 A girl allegedly set fire to a girls’ dorm at a school in Guyana, killing 18 of her classmates and a five-year-old boy.

Argentina will now allow women to get the morning-after pill without a prescription.

This means women will no longer need to see a doctor and can buy the emergency contraception over the counter at pharmacies.

All health workers will also be able to provide the pills at hospitals, making them easier to access.

The government said this will help people to avoid unintentional pregnancies as they can buy the pill and have it at home just in case.

Seven out of 10 teen pregnancies in Argentina are unplanned, according to official data, the BBC reported.

Activists say the move will help to de-stigmatize the morning-after pill, as it will be distributed similarly to condoms and hormone contraceptives.

This comes after Argentina, which is majority Catholic, became the largest country in Latin America to legalize abortion in December 2020.

More Women You Should Know About

🇮🇳 Top Indian women wrestlers who have been camping out on the streets of New Delhi to protest against sexual harassment were forcibly dragged and detained by police.

A second court in Japan has found the country’s ban on same-sex marriage unconstitutional.

In Japan, the constitution defines marriage as one of “mutual consent between both sexes,” which has been has been commonly understood as not permitting same-sex marriage, according to the BBC.

However, on Tuesday May 30, a court in Nagoya district ruled that the ban was unconstitutional after a male same-sex couple filed a lawsuit in 2019 when they were unable to register as a married couple.

The decision is the second to find the ban unconstitutional.

In 2021, a district court in Sapporo also found the ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional.

However, in June 2022, a court in Osaka reversed that ruling and ruled against three same-sex couples who filed for the right to marry, noting that Japan had not had a proper public debate on the subject.

The couple in Nagoya had also demanded one million yen (US$7,100) per person as compensation for services and benefits that married couples are entitled to.

The court denied them compensation, but it agreed that the ban was unconstitutional.

During the verdict, the judge said that the reasoning for excluding same-sex couples from the legal marriage system is becoming “shaky” as more people have become supportive of same-sex marriage, leading to a situation that is “difficult to ignore”, Kyodo News reported.

This is the first time that a ruling has stated which articles of the constitution the ban on same-sex marriage violates, according to Kyodo News.

Japan is the only G7 nation that does not recognize same-sex marriages.

More Good News For Your Week

🇰🇷 Nearby, South Korea also proposed a bill to legalize same-sex marriage.

🇱🇻 In another win for LGBTQ rights, Latvia’s government elected its first openly gay president who also makes history as the first openly gay head of state in Europe.

🇨🇦 Canada became the first country in the world to print warnings on every single cigarette.

🇳🇿 Multiple people ran onto the field during a New Zealand rugby match and it was absolute chaos.

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