Should global companies boycott Uganda over the anti-gay bill the country recently passed? UK business tycoon Richard Branson thinks so. He has called on companies and tourists to boycott Uganda after its parliament approved a bill to toughen the punishment for homosexual acts, reports The BBC

On his website he stated it was against his conscience to support a country which carried out a “dreadful witch hunt against the gay community.”

The new bill passed by Uganda proposes a life sentence for certain homosexual acts. U.S. President Barack Obama has called the bill  “odious.”

Before the bill’s passage, Branson said he had been seriously considering investing in Uganda after being “courted” by government officials. But he had decided not to “support” Uganda because of its “witch hunt” against gay people.

“I would urge other companies worldwide to follow suit. Uganda must reconsider or find it being ostracized by companies and tourists worldwide,” he said. “Governments must realize that people should be able to love whoever they want.”

He added no government “to ever make any judgements on people’s sexuality.”

“They should instead celebrate when people build loving relationships that strengthen society, no matter who they are,” he noted.

Although Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has not yet signed the bill into law, Prime Minister Amama Mbabazi opposed the vote in parliament on the grounds that there was no quorum.

But Uganda’s MPs pushed ahead with the vote.