Kampala...words of hope from a gay bar

Page from a Kampala newspaper in April, discussing the proposed anti-gay bill (Photo/Dennis Porter)

In the craven world of homophobia, there is gay-bashing, and then there's Uganda.

It came breathtakingly close this month to becoming just the eighth country in the world to legalize gay executions. 

Recently, parliament adjourned without considering a bill to impose the death sentence on homosexuals with HIV, or convicted of same-sex rape.  But there is a chance it'll be re-introduced as soon as next month.

And the atmosphere it's fostered in Uganda over the past two years is chilling.

One newspaper even published pictures of men it claimed were gay, and the headline said "Hang Them!" Sometime later, an activist was found beaten to death.

And for now, it's still illegal to be gay in Uganda. And more than a little frightening in the one place they dare to gather, as we heard from Dennis Porter in Kampala.

Listen now to Dennis' View from Here.

And the names of some people interviewed in that piece were changed at their request for their own security.