Ugandan Member Of Parliament David Bahati Reiterates Anti-Homosexuality Bill Will Become Law “Soon”

David Bahati, the Ugandan Member of Parliament and sponsor of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill of 2009, told CNN Wednesday that the proposed bill, which would include the introduction of laws mandating life imprisonment and the death penalty for “aggravated acts” of homosexuality, will “soon” become law. “We are very confident because this is a piece of legislation that is needed in this country to protect the traditional family here in Africa, and also protect the future of our children,” Bahati said. Since the bill was announced last year, there has been an almost universal condemnation, governments that routinely donate aid to Uganda threatening to withhold funds, and human rights groups pressuring the country, and most thought that the heinous act of hatred costumed as legislation had been shelved. But Bahati says that is not true, that “Every single day of my life now I am still pushing that it passes.” His statements arrive as a Ugandan newspaper – with which Bahati is directly involved – published a list of what it deemed to be the country’s “Top 100 Homosexuals” along with a call to “Hang Them.” The published of that magazine – Rolling Stone; not in any way related to the American publication of the same name – one Giles Muhame said that homosexuality is a virus spreading throughout the world. Parroting a popular American Christian evangelical refrain, he added that Ugandan homosexuals are intent on recruiting “converts in schools.” “We thought”he said, “by publishing that story, the police would investigate them, prosecute them, and hang them.” Bahati , dangerously defiant, remains determined to cleanse Uganda of homosexuals, saying “God has given us different freedoms, our democracy is giving us different freedoms, but I don’t think anyone has the freedom to commit a crime and homosexuality in our country is a crime, it is criminal.”