A key Senate committee approved a
resolution Tuesday urging Ugandan lawmakers to dump a controversial
anti-gay bill.
Tomeika Bowden, a Senate Foreign
Relations Committee staffer, confirmed to On Top Magazine that
members had voted the resolution out of committee, but would not
comment on when the full Senate would vote on the bill.
The resolution, authored by Wisconsin
Senator Russ Feingold, calls on members of the Parliament of Uganda
to reject MP David Bahati's bill that includes a death penalty
provision for people who repeatedly engage in gay sex and those who
are HIV-positive. The bill also bans the “promotion of
homosexuality,” which would effectively outlaw political
organizations, broadcasters and publishers that advocate on behalf of
gay rights.
The bill's tangled language could allow
straight folks to be put to death, as well. The death penalty
provision applies to anyone who is found guilty of “aggravated
homosexuality,” a term used to describe a repeat offender. Those
offenses include failing to report to officials knowledge of a person
who is gay. Therefore, a person does not need to engage in gay sex
to bring the death penalty to bear.
Since its February introduction, the
resolution had attracted 22 co-sponsors, including Republican
Senators Bob Casey, Jr. of Pennsylvania, Tom Coburn of Oklahoma and
Susan Collins of Maine.
A similar House resolution, also
introduced in February, has yet to be heard in the House Committee on
Foreign Affairs. The committee is chaired by California
Representative Howard L. Berman, the resolution's primary sponsor.
Both Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton and President Obama criticized the proposal
at the National Prayer Breakfast in February. Obama described
the measure as “odious.”
In addition to urging the Uganda
Parliament to reject the anti-gay bill, the resolution also “urges
all countries around the world to reject and repeal similar laws that
criminalize homosexuality, and encourages the United States
Department of State to closely monitor human rights abuses that occur
because of sexual orientation.”