The anti-homosexuality bill in Uganda is more than simply a bill about homosexuality, and it is more than a pernicious piece of local legislation that affects Uganda alone. Of course, the bill itself is bad enough. Originally conceived back in 2009, it was introduced with the aim of ridding Uganda of homosexuality and, to begin with, contained the death penalty. An international outcry forced the Ugandans to drop that section of the bill, but the form in which it passed through the legislature just before Christmas is dreadful enough, with homosexuality now leading to life imprisonment and a prison sentence for those who do not report gay people to the authorities within 24 hours.
