Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has asked lawmakers to make clear in a proposed anti-homosexuality law that it is not criminal to merely identify as gay, as part of an attempt to tone down a bill that has drawn international condemnation. Last month, lawmakers in the east African country overwhelmingly passed the proposed legislation, potentially one of the world’s harshest anti-LGBTQ laws, and sent it to the president for approval. The planned law, or bill, criminalises a broad range of homosexual activity, including promoting or abetting the lifestyle and imposes stiff penalties including death for so called aggravated homosexuality. The law has stoked widespread criticism from human rights defenders, Western governments and corporations. Thomas Tayebwa, parliament’s deputy speaker, read to lawmakers a letter Museveni had written to the parliament’s speaker on Tuesday in which he outlined his reasons for returning the bill and what changes he wanted.