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Speaker 1: My name is Lily Madden and I'm a proud Arunda

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Speaker 1: Bunjelung Calcottin woman from Gadighl country. The Daily oz acknowledges

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Speaker 1: that this podcast is recorded on the lands of the

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Speaker 1: Gadighl people and pays respect to all Aboriginal and Torres

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Speaker 1: Strait Island and nations. We pay our respects to the

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Speaker 1: first peoples of these countries, both past and present.

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Speaker 2: Just a heads up before we start this episode, it

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Speaker 2: is a really intense one. This episode deals with homophobia

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Speaker 2: and discrimination against the LGBTQ plus community. If you do

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Speaker 2: need to talk to someone, you can call Q Life

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Speaker 2: on one eight hundred one eight four five two seven

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Speaker 2: from three pm until midnight, or you can call Lifeline

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Speaker 2: on thirteen eleven fourteen. If you're not in the right

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Speaker 2: headspace to listen to this episode, we'll see you again tomorrow.

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Speaker 2: Good morning, and welcome to the Daily os. It's Wednesday,

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Speaker 2: the thirty first of May.

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Speaker 3: I'm Zara, I'm Sam.

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Speaker 2: One of the world's harshest laws against homosexuality, was part

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Speaker 2: into law this week in Uganda. Uganda's President Yueri Museveni

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Speaker 2: has assigned into law an anti homosexuality ball that has

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Speaker 2: been condemned internationally.

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Speaker 3: Under the proposed legislation, friends, family and members of the

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Speaker 3: community would have a duty to report individuals in same

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Speaker 3: sex relationships to the authorities.

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Speaker 2: The law has been met with protests, faced international condemnation

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Speaker 2: and is being challenged locally in Uganda's Constitutional Court. This

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Speaker 2: is a big topic with a lot to get your

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Speaker 2: head around, so we're going to go into it in

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Speaker 2: the deep dive, but first let's do the headlines. Bruce

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Speaker 2: Lherman has settled his defamation claim with News Corp. Lehman

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Speaker 2: brought the proceedings against the company and one of its journalists,

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Speaker 2: Samantha Maiden, over two articles that were published in twenty

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Speaker 2: twenty one. Lehman has faced rape allegations from former colleague

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Speaker 2: Britney Higgins, with a criminal case discontinued last year. Lehman

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Speaker 2: has maintained his innocence throughout the process.

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Speaker 3: The federal government and Crown Casinos have settled on a

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Speaker 3: four hundred and fifty million dollar penalty for breaches of

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Speaker 3: money laundering and terrorism financing laws at Crowns Melbourne and

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Speaker 3: Perth venues. Crown acknowledged their breaches of the law as

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Speaker 3: part of the agreement, which will now be considered by

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Speaker 3: the Federal Court before the penalty is finalized.

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Speaker 2: New testing has found a greater proportion of wild dingos

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Speaker 2: are purebred. This is watered down decades long concern that

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Speaker 2: dingoes were quote breeding themselves into extinction through increased cross

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Speaker 2: breeding with dogs. The study was led by researchers at

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Speaker 2: unsw who conducted ancestry modeling and analysis to trace the

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Speaker 2: ancestry of hundreds of wild and captive dingos.

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Speaker 3: And today's good news, Female full time employment is at

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Speaker 3: an all time high in Australia, according to new analysis

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Speaker 3: by the Federal Government of data from the Australian Bureau

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Speaker 3: of Statistics. It found that total employment amongst women has

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Speaker 3: increased by almost two hundred undred thousand in the past

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Speaker 3: twelve months.

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Speaker 2: A law introducing strict new penalties for homosexuality has passed

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Speaker 2: in Uganda's parliament.

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Speaker 4: And when you read the bill, if you perform a

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Speaker 4: sexual act with a parson of the same sex, then

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Speaker 4: you have committed the affairs of homosexuality and what is

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Speaker 4: the punishment imprisonment for life.

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Speaker 2: Back in March, we covered this story for the first

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Speaker 2: time and it was when the bill passed Uganda's parliament

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Speaker 2: with overwhelming support, with three hundred and eighty seven out

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Speaker 2: of three hundred and eighty nine votes in support of

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Speaker 2: the legislation, though we must add that many representatives were absent.

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Speaker 2: It then went to the President, who made some amendments,

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Speaker 2: but signed off on the bill this week, officially making

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Speaker 2: it law.

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Speaker 3: Zara, let's put this in some historical context. Where did

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Speaker 3: this law come from?

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Speaker 2: Well, homosexuality was already criminalized in Uganda before this law.

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Speaker 2: I think that is an important place to start, and

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Speaker 2: I also want to just say that that is not

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Speaker 2: unique to Uganda. More than half of Africa's nations prohibit

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Speaker 2: homosexual activity, with many countries maintaining some hangover of British

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Speaker 2: anti homosexuality laws from colonization. But rather than transitioning to

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Speaker 2: phasing away from those laws as other countries have, Ugandan

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Speaker 2: government has been moving to strengthen them, and that's with

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Speaker 2: the support from religious leaders in the country. The government's

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Speaker 2: language towards the LGBTQ plus community has been increasingly hostile

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Speaker 2: in recent months, and you can just imagine if this

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Speaker 2: is the tone that the legislators are bringing to the country.

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Speaker 2: What the overall national dialogue has been. There have been

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Speaker 2: a recent spate of arrests and arise in anti LGBTQ

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Speaker 2: plus violence.

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Speaker 3: So give me a sense of what this new legislation

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Speaker 3: will actually do well.

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Speaker 2: The law introduces new penalties of up to ten years

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Speaker 2: in prison for a range of homosexual acts, and then

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Speaker 2: their there are lesser penalties for people who promote homosexuality.

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Speaker 2: The element of this that I've seen a lot of

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Speaker 2: other news outlets really leading with is the fact that

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Speaker 2: the death penalty now applies for so called aggravated homosexuality,

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Speaker 2: which and I'm very much quoting here includes serial offenders,

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Speaker 2: meaning people with prior convictions.

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Speaker 3: This law's a huge deal and it obviously has major

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Speaker 3: support in parliament. Is there any pushback coming from any direction?

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Speaker 2: Yeah, So there's been a challenge already launched at the

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Speaker 2: Constitutional Court in Uganda. A local group called Human Rights

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Speaker 2: Awareness and Promotion Forum filed the complaint.

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Speaker 5: That bill is blat antley unconstitutional.

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Speaker 2: This is Adrian Juco, who's the executive director of that

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Speaker 2: human rights group that's bringing this case, speaking to NTV Uganda.

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Speaker 5: And during that times the bid was at a discussion.

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Speaker 5: They don't even a single al deputat person was best

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Speaker 5: cuddy before committee to have their views height and this

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Speaker 5: is a law that I mixed them directly.

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Speaker 2: So the case we'll argue both that the law is

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Speaker 2: unconstitutional and that there were also issues with how the

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Speaker 2: law was handled by the parliament.

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Speaker 3: And do we think that challenge is going to be upheld.

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Speaker 2: Well, there's definitely precedent. The bill that was signed into

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Speaker 2: law this week is actually not the first time that

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Speaker 2: the Ugandan government has tried to crack down on homosexuality.

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Speaker 2: Back in twenty fourteen, it signed an earlier version of

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Speaker 2: the Anti Homosexuality Act into law, but then that was

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Speaker 2: thrown out by the Constitutional Court, not because of human

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Speaker 2: rights concerns, but it was because of some legal technicality.

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Speaker 2: It was ruled that the legislation was void because there

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Speaker 2: weren't enough MPs in attendance when the law was voted

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Speaker 2: on for it to have legitimately passed. And that's why

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Speaker 2: at the beginning I just noted how many people were absent.

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Speaker 2: It remains to be seen whether a strong case exists

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Speaker 2: for the legislation to be overthrown either on humanity so

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Speaker 2: by the human rights groups that are really pushing for

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Speaker 2: it or some other legal technicality. But I mean, we'll

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Speaker 2: have to wait and see on that one.

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Speaker 3: And there are some major human rights implications here. And

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Speaker 3: at the end of the day, this is a story

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Speaker 3: about real people. Do we have a sense from the

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Speaker 3: LGBTQ community in Uganda about how they're feeling personally?

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Speaker 2: Look, it's very difficult to get a full sentiment of

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Speaker 2: what it is like on the ground because it would

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Speaker 2: be extremely dangerous at this point to speak out to

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Speaker 2: me for openly gay people or members of the LGBTQ

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Speaker 2: community to speak to media.

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Speaker 3: That's a good point.

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Speaker 2: But we have heard from some LGBTQ plus rights advocates,

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Speaker 2: one of them being Frank mcgeesha, who told Reuters he

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Speaker 2: feared the law would lead to mass arrests and that

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Speaker 2: it would incite violence. And he's also worried about the

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Speaker 2: health implications, things like the mental health of LGBTQ plus

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Speaker 2: people in Uganda.

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Speaker 3: And this is a story that has now traveled around

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Speaker 3: the world. I mean we're talking here in Australia. How

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Speaker 3: has the world responded to this news?

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Speaker 2: I mean, I think in the way that you would

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Speaker 2: expect the laws being condemned by many international organizations and governments,

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Speaker 2: with a UN High Commissioner for Human Rights last month,

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Speaker 2: Volker Turk, say that the law was probably among the

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Speaker 2: worst of its kind in the world, with US President

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Speaker 2: Joe Biden calling for its immediate repeal and he's threatened

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Speaker 2: sanctions so economic penalties. He's also threatened travel restrictions on

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Speaker 2: anyone who's involved in what he labels as serious human

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Speaker 2: rights abuses or corruption. I think this is a really

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Speaker 2: key point though, because there is particular concern for health

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Speaker 2: campaign groups around the world, groups like UNAIDS and Global

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Speaker 2: Fund about what this law will do for Uganda's HIV response.

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Speaker 2: According to a joint statement that was published, the passage

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Speaker 2: of this new law has already led to reduce access

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Speaker 2: to prevention and treatment services, and there is concern that

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Speaker 2: it will ultimately derail what has been otherwise a fast

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Speaker 2: progressing movement.

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Speaker 3: Look, it's an incredibly painful topic to get into. Zara,

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Speaker 3: thanks for taking us through where the law's at and

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Speaker 3: how the world has responded, and thank you for listening. Again.

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Speaker 3: If this episode has raised anything for you, you can

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Speaker 3: call Q Life on one eight hundred one eight four

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Speaker 3: five two seven from three pm until midnight, or you

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Speaker 3: can call Lifeline on thirteen eleven fourteen