still be very safe. former democratic congressman of massachusetts, barney frank. thank you for your time tonight. it s great to see you. if you re a longtime watcher of our show, thank you. also, you may remember a story we covered a lot which we called the kill the maze bill. the surprising thing is it was american activists behind that bill from the start. that story has just become a very big deal including the president weighing in on it. it s still a story that is very much about the american political right. stay with us. [ sneezes, coughs ] i ve got a big date, but my sinuses are acting up. it s time for advil cold and sinus. [ male announcer ] truth is that won t relieve all your symptoms. new alka seltzer plus-d relieves more symptoms than any other behind the counter liquid gel. oh what a relief it is. where their electricity comes from. they flip the switch and the light comes on. it s our job to make sure that it does. using natural gas this power plant can produce en
in it. he s a fellow at the nice institute. his latest article inside the iron closet about underground homosexuality in russia, in the february edition of gq. jeff, mr. charlotte, it s great to see you. good to be with you, rachel. last month the president in uganda was calling this bill fascist. now he s signing it into law. what happened? it was an incredible act of sort of political jujitsu. he had been cornered by political rival who knew it was difficult for him to sign the bill because he risked the loss of foreign aid, especially u.s. foreign aid. we give over $400 million. and i think he read the u.s. right. he realized that we weren t going to actually take the money away, and that he only stood to gain from this bill as a political posture. so what the bill last month he called a fascist bill, today became the first platform of his 2016 re-election campaign.
that doesn t include the sentence of death for being gay this time but does include lots of the other prison sentences that attracted so much international outrage years earlier. the ugandan parliament passed this bill in december and then earlier today, earlier this afternoon, you uganda s president signed the bill into law, calls for lifetime imprisonment for the crime of for being in a same-sex marriage, seven years in prison for attempting to commit homosexuality. this bill at various times over the last few years has appeared to be dead but today it officially became the law of the land in uganda. upon signing the bill, uganda s president announced homosexual behavior was learned and could be unlearned which is after all something ugandan legislators have been told for years. five years in fact. exactly. hold on. there s more.
factors, like influence and so on and so forth. we don t want anybody to interfere in our internal affairs. finished. that was the president of uganda earlier today signing into law an updated version of that country s kill the gays bill. this version does not call for homosexuality to be punishable by death but rather by lifetime imprisonment. so that s a nice improvement. after uganda s president signed that bill into law today, the u.s. government plans to review our nation s relationship with uganda including a review of foreign aid to that country. joining us now for the interview is jeff sharlet who s been reporting on the ugandan bill
we don t want anybody to interfere in our internal affairs. finished. that was the president of uganda earlier today signing into law an updated version of that country s kill the gays bill. this version does not call for homosexuality to be punishable by death but rather by lifetime imprisonment. so that s a nice improvement. after uganda s president signed that bill into law today, the u.s. government plans to review our nation s relationship with uganda including a review of foreign aid to that country. joining us now for the interview is jeff sharlet who s been reporting on the ugandan bill and american evangelicals role in it. he s a fellow at the nice institute. his latest article inside the iron closet about underground homosexuality in russia, in the february edition of gq. jeff, mr. sharlet, it s great to see you. good to be with you, rachel. last month the president in uganda was calling this bill