Speaking ahead of the presidential election slated for February 18, challenger Kizza Besigye, who faces President Yoweri Museveni for the third time, says the homosexuality issue has "generated far too much excitement" among current government leaders.
"This is something that is done in the privacy of people's rooms, between consenting adults," Dr Besigye was quoted as saying in an AFP report via africasia.com.
Stressing that he was speaking individually and not on behalf of the four-party opposition grouping he leads, he argued his personal moral views about sexuality were not relevant.
"We are talking about the law," said Dr Besigye, leader of the Forum for Democratic Change (FDC).
Although Uganda's penal code bans sexual acts, a ruling party lawmaker David Bahati in 2009 introduced legislation that, if enacted, would massively expand the list of prosecutable crimes related to homosexuality.
Following widespread international outrage, the bill has now stalled and has yet to be debated in parliament.