Uganda MP David Bahati remains defiant
in his opposition to homosexuality even as lawmakers move to table
his anti-gay bill.
Bahati is the author and primary
sponsor of a controversial bill that would increase the penalties for
being gay in a nation where it is already a crime. Bahati's bill
proposes putting repeat offenders to death under certain
circumstances.
The measure, however, might have proved
too controversial.
President Yoweri Museveni has called
the legislation redundant and unnecessary, according to recent
comments made by Information Minister Masiko Kabakumba.
In an interview on NTV, Bahati remained
defiant, repeating his claim that children are being recruited by gay
people. (In fact, he
told MSNBC's Rachel Maddow that more than $15 million has poured into
the country in less than a year to defeat the bill and recruit
children into being gay.)
“We don't have any provision on
promotion of homosexuality anywhere. We don't have any provision on
same-sex marriage. We don't have any provision in our rules on
recruitment of our children. We don't have any provision on
counseling and caring. We want to make it very clear. We want
Parliament to come up with a rule that is specific and clear to
address the imagined problem of homosexuality.” (The video is
embedded in the right panel of this page.)