David Bahati, the Ugandan politician who authored the Kill Gays bill, entered the US this week on a single entry visa. He was turned away from the government finance conference he was to attend, but was interviewed by Rachel Maddow last night. More of that interview will be aired tonight.
As the (Ugandan) Daily Monitor reported yesterday:
The conference spokesperson, Mr Doug Hadden, was quoted on Lez Get Real website, saying “There was a frank but calm discussion and Mr Bahati was not able to enter the building.” Mr Bahati told Daily Monitor yesterday that organisers had shown a “high level of intolerance” that is “inconsistent with American values”.
“But the resolve to defend the future of children and pursuit of this wonderful piece of legislation is intact,” he said.
…
The Uganda delegation [to the conference] later met the Deputy Assistant of Secretary of State Bureau of African Affairs, Ms Karl Wycoff, and raised the matter.
Huffington Post reports on Maddow’s interview with Bahati:
Bahati said that there was substantial evidence that he would show Maddow, including the assertion that $15 million of foreign money has been poured into Uganda for the purpose of recruiting children into homosexuality. (Maddow was, needless to say, skeptical about that claim.)
Maddow asked him how gays living openly in Uganda harmed children. “It hurts my family when my child goes to school and is converted into gay…when the purpose of procreation is undermined,” Bahati said.
He also said that he was concerned about following “God’s law.” Maddow pressed him on this point, finally getting him to acknowledge that, in his view, the “appropriate punishment” for violating God’s law is death. “We need to turn to God,” he said.
Box Turtle Bulletin observes that in the interview aired last night,
Bahati commends the editors of the Ugandan tabloid Rolling Stone (no relation to the U.S. magazine by the same name) for publishing the photos of allegedly gay Ugandans, saying that he would hope that in the future, the police would use articles like these to hunt down gay people. He also called homosexuality a sin and said, “the wages of sin is death.”
The Anglican Church of Uganda opposes some of its more draconian elements, but otherwise is a firm supporter of bill.