While most of the world moves forward with equal marriage rights and recognizing people who identify as a different gender than the one they were assigned at birth, there are some corners of the Earth where people and countries are insisting on taking steps backwards in this regard.
The small Asian nation of Brunei is one of them, apparently. According to CNN, Brunei has just passed laws surrounding gay sex, and they're not of the variety you would expect in 2019. Rather than embracing people of any sexuality, the country has decided to pass even stricter laws surrounding the practice of physical intimacy between two men or two women.
As of April 3, any individuals caught partaking in gay sex can be stoned to death, according to the new law. The legislation went a step further, stating that "the punishment will be witnessed by a group of Muslims."
Although the law was officially passed through the Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, in 2014, the country decided to institute a gradual roll-out of the new legislation, but the deadline for it will finally come about next week. This final step in the law was announced by the Brunei Attorney General back in December last year.
Gay sex isn't even the only thing on the docket to be punished with much harsher sentences. Adulterers will be treated in the same way, and people caught stealing could face amputation in a brutal new punishment.
Human rights groups were horrified by the new law.
"Brunei must immediately halt its plans to implement these vicious punishments, and revise its Penal Code in compliance with its human rights obligations. The international community must urgently condemn Brunei's move to put these cruel penalties into practice," Rachel Chhoa-Howard, Brunei Researcher at Amnesty International, said in a statement.
