Amazing how different the Commonwealth states are. Of course, homosexual conduct was illegal in Canada until Trudeau's revisions of the Criminal Code in the late 1960's. So it's not that long ago Canada was onside with Uganda's pending legal bigotry.
Uganda's anti-gay bill causes Commonwealth uproar
Proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals has the potential to divide leaders at summit
Geoffrey York
Johannesburg— From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
The Commonwealth convenes for a summit this week amid growing furor over a proposed law that would impose life imprisonment on homosexuals in Uganda, whose President is chairing the gathering.
The law, proceeding through Uganda's Parliament and supported by some of its top leaders, would imprison anyone who knows of the existence of a gay or lesbian and fails to inform the police within 24 hours. It requires the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" – defined as any sexual act between gays or lesbians in which one person has the HIV virus.
The controversy is growing because Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni is the chairman of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in Trinidad and Tobago, which opens on Friday with Stephen Harper joining the leaders of 52 other countries.
If it is raised at the summit, the issue has the potential to divide Commonwealth leaders, who hold deeply polarized views on homosexuality. A number of Commonwealth countries, including Canada and Britain, have liberal views on the subject, but many African and Caribbean nations are socially conservative and maintain laws on their books that criminalize homosexuality
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