Uganda Drops Death Penalty, Life Sentence From Proposed Anti-Gay Legislation

After weeks of international condemnation including threats to end foreign aid, Uganda will be dropping the sections of its anti-gay bill that call for the death penalty or life imprisonment.

The draft bill, which is under consideration by a parliamentary committee, will drop the two punishments to attract the support of religious leaders who are opposed to these penalties, Buturo said today in a phone interview from the capital, Kampala. Ugandan lawmaker David Bahati presented a private member’s bill on Oct. 14 which sought the death penalty and life imprisonment for gay people in the country. The Ugandan government supports the bill because homosexuality and lesbianism are “repugnant to the Ugandan culture,” Buturo said. Still, it favors a more refined set of punishments, he said. In addition to formulating punishments for the gay people, the bill will also promote counseling to help “attract errant people to acceptable sexual orientation,” said Buturo.

A "more refined set of punishments" - like forced reparative therapy. Overall good news nonetheless, but we must continue to expose the American evangelicals and GOP leaders that got this murderous legislation rolling in the first place.