Uganda lawmaker David Bahati is expected to attend a prayer breakfast in Washington D.C.

Bahati is the author of a controversial bill that would strengthen the criminal penalties for having gay sex in the African country. The bill includes a death penalty provision for repeat offenders and people who are HIV-positive, increasing the penalties for having gay sex in a country where it's already a crime. The bill also bans the “promotion of homosexuality,” which would effectively outlaw political organizations, broadcasters and publishers that advocate on behalf of gay rights.

Bahati told the Kampala-based Daily Monitor that he will attend the National Prayer Breakfast, which is expected to draw over 3,500 guests to the Hilton Washington's ornate ballroom on February 4.

“I intend to attend the prayer breakfast,” Bahati told the newspaper.

The annual event is organized by The Fellowship Foundation, also known as “The Family,” a conservative Christian organization.

Jeff Sharlet, author of The Family: The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, a book that exposes the political capital amassed in the U.S. by the secretive group, recently claimed the group was behind Bahati's bill, a charge Bahati has denied.

“[The] legislator that introduced the bill, a guy named David Bahati, is a member of The Family,” Sharlet said in a recent NPR interview. “He appears to be a core member of The Family. He works, he organizes their Ugandan National Prayer Breakfast and oversees an African sort of student leadership program designed to create future leaders for Africa, into which The Family has poured millions of dollars working through a very convoluted chain of linkages passing the money over to Uganda.”

“Sharlet is a liar and is responsible for generating the interest in this bill abroad,” Bahati told the Daily Monitor. “He just wants to sell his book.”

Western governments, including the U.S., Canada and Great Britain, as well as the United Nations have condemned the proposed legislation and called on the government to scrap it. Oregon Senator Ron Wyden, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee's subcommittee on International Trade, has threatened to reverse Uganda's advantageous trade status if the bill becomes law.

While president Obama has not announced whether he will attend the event, it's customary for the president to address the crowd. Obama did attend last year's prayer breakfast.