Uganda’s LGBT community are living “in total fear” after a new bill was passed last month making it illegal to identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender. Penalties include life in prison or even a death sentence in come cases. Now activists are calling on the European Union to stop sending aid to the African nation, and use it instead as leverage for greater human rights protections. Edward Mutebi, a Ugandan citizen residing in Germany, told Euronews that the bill was passed in the Ugandan parliament “in a spirit of hypocrisy […] with hatred, anger and misinformation,” and that persecution of the LGBT community was already increasing ahead of the vote. Ugandan religious leaders have ratcheted up the rhetoric, calling for LGBT individuals to be killed, Mutebi said, “and the effect on the community has been really, really bad.” “Imagine we’ve been suffering from persecution before, but now it’s on another level,” he told Euronews. “They’re calling for our extinction, they want to round up everyone who identifies as gay and put them in prison for life. Some people are even calling for the castration of homosexuals,” he continued. “We’re worried about what’s coming next.”