'Will Ugandan lawmakers move ahead with death penalty for gays?' (FP)

2011 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award Laureate Frank Mugisha was recently quoted in a Foreign Policy artcle addressing the recent reintroduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill into Ugandan Parliament: 'Will Ugandan lawmakers move ahead with death penalty for gays?' Says Mugisha:

"Traditional culture silences open discussion of sexuality. I am 29. I grew up in a very observant Catholic family in the suburbs of Kampala. From the time I was old enough to have romantic feelings, I knew I was gay, but we weren't supposed to speak of such things.

When I was 14, I came out to my brother. Later, when others close to me asked if I was gay, I didn't deny it. Though some relatives accepted me, I came out to the rest of my family slowly. Some simply chose to ignore the fact that I was gay, or begged me not to tell anyone, fearing I'd shame our family name. Others stopped speaking to me altogether.

Many Africans believe that homosexuality is an import from the West, and ironically they invoke religious beliefs and colonial-era laws that are foreign to our continent to persecute us...."

The article calls on the Ugandan parliamentarians to remember that gay rights are human rights.