The legislation, which now goes to the president, also calls for life in prison for anyone engaging in gay sex. Policies to stifle gay rights have been on the rise in several African nations.

Members of Uganda's LGBTQ community are in shock and fear being arrested after parliament passed a new law that makes it a crime to identify as gay, and imposes tough sentences that include the death penalty in certain cases,

Human rights campaigners condemn bill introducing capital and life imprisonment sentences

The new law appears to be the first to outlaw merely identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer, according to rights group Human Rights Watch.

The bill, which Uganda's parliament passed late Tuesday with only one dissenting voice, will become law if President Yoweri Museveni signs it as expected. In a statement, Tigere Chagutah, regional director of Amnesty International in East and Southern Africa,

Same-sex relations are already illegal in Uganda, but the new bill would also ban promoting and abetting homosexuality, as well as "conspiracy to engage in homosexuality."

The United Nations and United States on Wednesday added to international outrage over a hardline bill passed by Ugandan lawmakers that criminalizes simply identifying as LGBTQ+, prescribes a life sentence for convicted homosexuals and a death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality.