Yesterday, Ugandan Speaker of the Parliament Rebecca Kadaga renewed the push to pass the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, urging a vote by next Tuesday:
Jim Burroway summarizes the most appalling parts of the bill:
There has been considerable confusion over what would happen if the bill were to become law…. [I]t’s important to address the persistent false reports in the media that the death penalty has been removed from the bill. Those false reports have been reported as though they were fact since December, 2009.
He continues:
Most of the attention has focused on the bill’s death penalty provision, but even if it were removed, the bill’s other seventeen clauses would still represent a barbaric regression for Uganda’s human rights record. … There are a ton of "related offenses" in the proposed bill, including renting a room to a gay person, refusing to report a gay person to police, using the internet to advocate for the rights of gay people, donating to a pro-gay cause — and all of these offenses may be committed by straight people. A prior conviction on one of those clauses and then "touching" someone “with a part of a body” and "through anything" without anything even close to sex taking place … and you’re headed to the gallows under this bill.
Meanwhile, Melanie Nathan emphasizes that gay rights advocates in Uganda are "urging caution" from sympathizers abroad. Recent Dish coverage here and here.
The Dish 