activists swore they had nothing to do with the kill the gays bill. the bill in uganda died after a wave of international outrage and condemnation. that 2009 bill was put on the shelf. it did not go away entirely. at the end of last year in december the parliament in uganda quietly took up the bill again. a revised version of the bill 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, zempb 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.
in the winter of 2009, 5 years ago today, actually, a small blog in this country got a very big international scoop. it was february 2009, so that s just one month into the barack obama presidency. right? and while most people in this country were fixated on the freefalling global economy, and whether the new president and newly elected democrats would be able to arrest that freefall and bring us back from the brink of depression, three activists here in the united states were making preparations for big overseas trip. the blog in question which is called the box turtle bulletin, they got advanced word about this trip. five years ago today, they posted this blog item. what they reported that day is three american evangelical activists had been invited to attend a three-day conference in uganda in march. that march. 2009. the conference was being organized by a ugandan anti-gay group and three american activists were scheduled to
that group, that american religious group it turns out has ties to the specific ugandan legislator who introduced the anti-homosexuality bill. the man who introduced the kill the gays bill in uganda is a member of the family, yes? yes. a young member of parliament, david bahati, rising star who has been over to the united states for our national prayer breakfast and has taken something of an organizing role in the ugandan national prayer breakfast and has been involved in the family for some time. so the legislator in uganda who introduced the kill the gays bill had ties to the group and american anti-gay evangelical activists actively lobbying legislators in the country they needed to get tough on homosexuality in their society. both of them, c street and the activists swore they had nothing to do with the kill the gays bill. the bill in uganda died after a
even though these american activists were trying desperately to distance themselves from the kill the gays bill when it came out, prominent ugandans aware of how the bill came to be were crediting the same americans for helping with and inspiring the legislation. one priest we spoke with said members of the ugandan parliament present at the march conference left the meetings saying they needed to draft a new law to deal with the homosexuality issue. we learned it was not just the three american activists who had a front-row seat to what was happening in uganda. remember c street? a swanky town house in washington, d.c., run by a secretive religious group called the fellowship or the family. lots of conservative members of congress from both parties are believed to be members of the family. but they re pretty secretive. the family mostly operates off the radar. the one thing they do that everybody knows about is they run the national prayer breakfast every year in washington. other th
obama presidency. right? and while most people in this country were fixated on the free-falling global economy, and whether the new president and newly elected democrats would be able to arrest that free-fall and bring us back from the brink of depression, three activists here in the united states were making preparations for big overseas trip. the blog in question which is called the box turtle bulletin, they got advanced word about this trip. five years ago today, they posted this blog item. what they reported that day is three american evangelical activists had been invited to attend a three-day conference in uganda in march. that march. 2009. the conference was being organized by a ugandan anti-gay group and three american activists were scheduled to appear and speak at that conference. it was unclear at the time what that conference was going to be all about exactly. in march of that year as expected, these three american evangelical activists traveled to uganda and spoke at that