The extent to which US evangelical Christians are helping push the ‘Kill The Gays Bill’ in Uganda has been revealed in a series of tweets between them and anti-gay activists in the African country.

Matt Barber, attorney for Liberty Counsel, a US right wing Christian law firm, listed as an anti-gay group, has been praising anti-gay Ugandan evangelical pastor, Martin Ssempa on Twitter.

Ssempa tweeted earlier this week: ‘Homos are paid to spread the vice by hiding it under human rights gibberish! They are $$ by rich European sodomy groups!’

Barber retweeted Ssempa’s anti-gay slur and praised him in a follow-up tweet, saying: ‘Here’s a man not afraid of the international homofascist juggernaut.’

The two continued to promote each other’s anti-gay tweets throughout the week.

Liberty Counsel consistently spreads anti gay hate throughout the US, but their rhetoric (talking about a international ‘homosexual’ lobby investing money in recruiting ‘members’, calling it fascist, and so on) and methodology (pamphlets, speeches, use of social media) is now being used in Uganda.

But the link between Ssempa and the US evangelical anti-gay movement goes far deeper, say members of Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) rights, it amount to exporting anti-gay hate campaigns and adapting them in the African country.

Ssempa and the US evangelical pastor Scott Lively have also been implicated in working closely together with Ugandan Member of Parliament (MP) David Bahati in drafting and pushing Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality ‘Kill the Gays’ Bill (AHB) currently under consideration by Uganda’s parliament.

The bill has called for gays, under certain conditions, to face the death penalty.

AHB’s language echoes the false and hateful allegation by Lively and Liberty Counsel that a ‘sodomy’ and ‘homosexualists’ groups from the West ‘promote’ ‘perversion’ in Uganda, naming LGBT activists as ‘militant homofascisits’.

Lively has gone even further to suggest that gays are to be blamed for the holocaust and compared LGBT rights advocates to the Nazis, and fascists.

There are strong links between Lively and other US pastors, such as Rick Warren, who have a close relationship with the First Lady and member of Parliament, Janet Kataha Museveni, as well as the President himself, that have made similar allegations.

The idea that homosexuality is ‘imposed’ on Uganda by the West is increasingly echoed in speeches by some of Uganda’s leaders.

Ugandan members of parliament have said they want to discuss and vote on the Anti-Homosexuality bill in private.

With many fearing retribution from Western interests, many MPs say they are pushing for a closed-door session.

This will mean no member of the press or public will be allowed access to the debate.

According to a survey by the Ugandan Observer, around 40 lawmakers say their constituents are in full support of the draft anti-gay law.

Monica Amoding, who refused to say whether she supported the bill, described it as ‘very sensitive’.

‘Some of us fear that if it is discussed in public view, we will be persecuted for holding particular views,’ Amoding said.

Another MP, who requested anonymity, said supporting the bill publically could lead to being blacklisted by the West.

‘We have some projects that are funded by donors and at the same time we don’t want to be misunderstood by voters. So, it is better to remain silent to avoid being blacklisted,’ he said.

Support for the bill is still high, with many Ugandans saying they want it passed ‘immediately’.

The Canadian government has stopped funding to Crossroads, an Evangelical charity working in Uganda, for being homophobic.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the charity that describes homosexuality as a ‘perversion’ and a ‘sin’ will receive no further funding until officials will investigate the organization.

Julian Fantino of the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) tweeted: ‘I have asked officials to review this organization before further payments are made’.

CIDA has given $544,813 to Crossroads to ‘help dig wells, build latrines and promote hygiene awareness in Uganda’.

Until Tuesday, the organization’s website carried a list of ‘sexual sins’ deemed to be ‘perversion’: ‘Turning from the true and/or proper purpose of sexual intercourse; misusing or abusing it, such as in pedophilia, homosexuality and lesbianism, sadism, masochism, transvestism, and bestiality’.

It also asked ‘sinners’ to ‘repent’: ’God cares too much for you (and all of His children) to leave such tampering and spiritual abuse unpunished’.

Just hours after The Canadian Press contacted the group to ask a spokesperson about the site, the page in question disappeared from public view.

Facebook has removed an anti-gay page aimed at outing Ugandans who were preceived or rumored to be gay and could be persecuted under the law.

The page, called ‘Kampala Exposed: Facts and Rumors’, was brought to wider attention by a Change.org petition started by the LGBT organization Freedom and Roam Uganda.

In the petition, which garnered over 700 signatures, Freedom and Roam Uganda cited a previous ‘outing’ of Ugandans perceived to be gay in local tabloid Rolling Stone and the anti-gay bias believed to have led to the murder of prominent Ugandan LGBT advocate David Kato.

Members of Freedom and Roam Uganda wrote: ‘This highly trafficked page is attempting to incite mob violence, firing, eviction and annihilation of named people in Uganda who are perceived to be gay - or rumored to be gay, or otherwise have angered the woman behind it in some personal way - by ‘exposing’ them online.’

Uganda’s anti-gay policies received heightened attention in December when the country’s legislative body was expected to consider a bill that would impose extreme penalties upon those who are gay.

If passed, men or women who have gay sex could be imprisoned for life.

Those guilty of ‘aggravated homosexuality’ include HIV positive people who have gay sex or ‘serial offenders’. They will be executed.

However, despite Speaker Rebecca Kadaga promising the law as a ‘Christmas present’ to her homophobic supporters the bill has yet to be debated in parliament.

Kabuye Najibu, of the LGBT group Youth on Rock Foundation, was arrested in Uganda today while visiting his co-worker who had been arrested on New Year’s Eve.

Najibu has been arrested on charges which relate to homosexuality, and could possibly include the unfounded allegation of ‘recruitment into homosexuality’, which does not exist under Ugandan law.

Frank Mugishu, of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) charity, told GSN that Najibu was arrested when he entered Kawempe police station in order to bring food to his detained friend and colleague Joseph Kaweesi.

According to Melanie Nathan, South African attorney and LGBT rights advocate based in the USA, both Najibu and Kaweesi have been arrested for ‘crimes relating to homosexuality’ and ‘recruitment into homosexuality’.

In November 2012, Rebecca Kadaga, the speaker of the parliament of Uganda, promised to enact a revised anti-homosexuality bill (AHB), providing for harsher penalties against suspected LGBT people and anyone who fails to report them to authorities, including long-term imprisonment and the death penalty for what the law terms ‘repeat offenders’. The notion of ‘recruiting’ is implicit in the AHB bill.

Neither bail nor a trial date has been set.

A third man, according to Nathan, whose identity has not disclosed for his own safety, was with Najibu at the time and witnessed the arrest, but managed to escape.

On New Year’s Eve, Joseph Kaweesi, LGBT youth worker and advocate, was arrested by Ugadan police and charged with crimes relating to homosexuality.

According to reports from Uganda, Kaweesi, one of the founder of the LGBT group Youth on Rock Foundation, is being held at Kawempe police station, in Kampala, capital of Uganda.

Frank Mugishu, of the Sexual Minorities of Uganda (SMUG) charity, confirmed that Kaweesi was arrested yesterday (31 December 2012) by police officers.

According to Mugishu he was charged with ‘carnal knowledge (homosexuality)’ and ‘recruiting youth into homosexuality’.

LGBT rights advocate Melanie Nathan told Gay Star News that she received information that attorneys have spoken with Kaweesi and that plans are being made to try and bail him.

Speaking with GSN Nathan, who is from South Africa but based in the USA, said: ‘it would seem to me that the police are preempting the Anti-Homosexuality Bill (also known as The Kill the Gays Bill) which has been introduced into this parliament and has yet to pass.

‘The arrest may be political as anti-gay catalysts for the Bill try and drum up more support for its passage.

‘Although there is an existing law which people can be charged under for “carnal knowledge or defilement,” there is currently no law that speaks to the so called “recruitment” of homosexuals.

‘While we all know such is impossible to do, the Ugandan AHB seeks to make the misnomer a crime.

‘If Kaweesi’s charges are pursued the facts may be difficult to prove and certainly the aspect of “recruitment” could be thrown out by a competent court of law’.

Red Pepper, a Ugandan daily has published today (7 December) graphic photos allegedly depicting the head of the country’s prime football team ‘sodomising’ a young team player.

A photo depicting Chris Mubiru having anal sex with a young man covered the entire front page of the paper entitled: ‘SMOKED OUT! Uganda Cranes boss nabbed sodomising players – Shocking pictures inside’.

The paper printed five striking photos of the head of Cranes football team allegedly in the process of ‘sodomising’ a young team player.

The photos detailed the alleged sexual acts with captions designed to outrage the country’s conservative population: ‘MASTER AT WORK: Mubiru nails the boys butt’, ‘shafting’ and ‘hurting the boy’, to finally ‘END GAME: The boy struggles to stand up after the bum shattering session.’

The alleged ‘young player’ was not identified nor could the validity of the pictures be ascertained.

No statement has been issued by the Crane’s football team at the time of publishing this story.