Ugandan president will soften anti-gay bill

[The Straight Story]

Ugandan president will soften anti-gay bill

Pressure by glbt organisations, human rights groups and western nations appears to be finally having a positive effect on Uganda's proposed laws to imprison or put to death homosexuals.


As it stands the bill envisages gay men and lesbians being sentenced to life imprisonment for having sex. In cases of sex with minors or sexual acts leading to HIV infection, the penalty would be death. The bill also proposes that anyone who fails to report a homosexual act committed by others would face up to three years in jail.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni now says he will personally intervene to soften the bill, which is yet to be debated in Uganda's parliament. "We should not have an extreme position. The president will harmonize the two sides and address the concerns of the Europeans and our other development partners," said Museveni's spokesman.

The president's late and reluctant statement comes after a number of Western states are believed to have threatened to withdraw aid to Uganda if the government passes the bill into law. There has also been an outcry from the country's small gay and lesbian community and the World Council of Churches has criticized the bill, saying it would run against basic Christian teaching by promoting hatred.

http://www.gaynz.com/articles/publish/3/article_8340.php

[Nikki Stone1]

1. Softening the death penalty for being gay: how magnanimous

But big thanks to Rachel Maddow for bringing this topic to the forefront. It pays to have gays in the media.

[TexasObserver]

2. recommended