Uganda plans to pass “kill the gays” bill as “Christmas gift”

Rebecca Kadaga

After three years of periodic delays over international outcry, it looks like Uganda’s proposed Anti-Homosexuality (“Kill the Gays”) Bill is finally on the threshold of passage thanks to mob rule:

Ugandans "are demanding it," [Speaker Rebecca Kadaga] said, reiterating a promise she made before a meeting on Friday of anti-gay activists who spoke of "the serious threat" posed by homosexuals to Uganda's children. Some Christian clerics at the meeting in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, asked the speaker to pass the law as "a Christmas gift."

"Speaker, we cannot sit back while such (a) destructive phenomenon is taking place in our nation," the activists said in a petition. "We therefore, as responsible citizens, feel duty-bound to bring this matter to your attention as the leader of Parliament ... so that lawmakers can do something to quickly address the deteriorating situation in our nation."

The anti-gay activists paraded in front of Kadaga, with parents and schoolchildren holding up signs saying homosexuality is "an abomination." The speaker then promised to consider the bill within two weeks, declaring that "the power is in our hands."

"Who are we not to do what they have told us? These people should not be begging us," Kadaga said of activists who want the bill to become law.

And before anyone asks (or believes whatever defensive spin anti-gay groups may put on their prior support for the bill), contrary to the above article’s claim, the legislation does still include the notorious “aggravated homosexuality” clause which does still guarantee that virtually anyone, gay or straight, who commits any number of “offense[s]” ranging from “living with HIV” to being the parent, guardian or caretaker of anyone accused of being gay, “shall be liable on conviction to suffer death”. Just so we’re clear.

Meanwhile, the European Parliament and several U.S. leaders have threatened to cut all aid to Uganda should the bill pass. It’s a rather deplorable state of affairs when the only conceivable way to force a regime not to murder its own people is to further starve said people.

♪ Hang the gays ’n’ suffer pridely / Falalalala la-la la la … ♫

(via Joe. My. God.)