The story of a young Ugandan gay couple

Although Mr Bahati said he was not in a hate campaign, he could not explain the lack of facts to back his case --- the proposed law seeks to improve on the penalties prescribed in the Penal Code, which already criminalises homosexuality --- or provide evidence to back claims that European gays were recruiting in Uganda.

Some facts about homosexuality

• Homosexuality is the romantic or sexual attraction or behaviour among members of the same sex, situationally or as an enduring disposition. As a sexual orientation, homosexuality is considered to lie within the heterosexual-homosexual continuum of human sexuality and refers to an individual’s identity based on those attractions and membership in a community of others who share them.
• The prevalence of homosexuality is difficult to determine accurately; studies suggest between two and twenty percent of the population exhibit some degree of homosexual sensibility, though in many cultures homosexual relations have been prevalent.
• Homosexuality is widely encountered in the animal kingdom.
• Throughout history, individual aspects of homosexuality have been admired or condemned according to various societies' sexual norms. When praised, those aspects were seen as a way to improve society; when condemned, particular activities were seen as a sin or a disease, and some homosexual behaviour was prohibited by law. Since the middle of the 20th century, homosexuality has been gradually delisted as a disease and decriminalised in nearly all developed countries.
• However, the legal status of homosexual relations varies widely by country and there remain jurisdictions in which certain homosexual behaviours are crimes with severe penalties including death.
• Many homosexual people hide their feelings and activities out of fear of disapproval or aggression; they are commonly said to be closeted.
• Efforts toward emancipation of homosexuality as it is currently understood began in the 1860s; since the mid-1950s there has been an accelerating trend towards increased visibility, acceptance, and civil rights for lesbian, gay and bisexual people.
• Currently the most common adjectives in use are lesbian for women and gay for men, though some prefer other terms or none at all. One of the crucial issues in the public discussion about homosexuality is whether or not the condition is a mental illness.
• Religious and conservative Christians, Jews, Muslims, Sikhs etc, regard same-sex behaviour as profoundly immoral and hated by God regardless of the nature of their relationships. Many regard homosexuals as a threat to religious freedom, to the culture generally, and to the institution of opposite-sex marriage (which they generally refer to as traditional marriage).
• A variety of groups, consisting of most gays, lesbians, bisexuals, their friends and families of origin, religious liberals and progressives, secularists, mental health professionals and their associations, civil libertarians, human sexuality researchers, etc, favour equal rights and protections for persons of all sexual orientations, including the right to marry. Most favour the extension of hate-crime laws to include violent crimes motivated by hatred of the victim's sexual orientation. Most regard homophobia -- any denial of human rights based on sexual orientation -- to be as profoundly immoral as is sexism and racism.