Author of Ugandan Anti-Homosexuality Bill Fears for His Life – Tuesday January 5, 2010

KAMPALA, Uganda, January 5, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The author of the controversial Uganda anti-homosexuality bill says that he fears for his life following the disappearance of his cousin and numerous death threats made against him in recent weeks, reports AllAfrica.com.

David Bahati, 36, an MP with the ruling party, says he has been receiving such threats since he moved his private member’s bill, prompting him to report to the Ugandan Ministry of Internal Affairs that his life is in danger.

The legislation has provoked strong condemnations and protests from Western nations, largely due to its attempt to impose the death penalty for committing homosexual acts with minors, or while infected with HIV. However, the government has since said that it will revise the bill to remove these sections and replace them with a lesser penalty.

Another controversial section would imprison any citizen who fails to report knowledge of homosexual acts.

In a Christmas Day address to a gathering of hundreds of Christians, Parliamentary Speaker Edward Ssekandi said that he had “received many communications from abroad threatening and stressing that they shall not give us money if we support the anti-homosexuality Bill.” Numerous countries, including Canada, the U.S., Britain, and France, have decried the law. In December, the European Union passed a resolution against the bill, threatening aid cuts, and the Swedish government has said they would cancel their $50 million development aid should the law pass.

Pro-family advocates have also condemned the bill as excessively harsh, but have also explained that the bill should be seen as a reaction from the strongly pro-life and pro-family country to the immense pressure they have received from the West to undermine the natural family through its laws. In fact, the opening section of the bill states that it “aims at strengthening the nation’s capacity to deal with emerging internal and external threats to the traditional heterosexual family.”