Uganda has again re-tabled the controversial anti-gay bill. Ugandan member of parliament, David Bahati, who proposed the bill back in 2009 has again considered tabling the draconian bill but with changes. He claims to have dropped the death penalty and jailing of family members who fail to report homosexuals to the authorities. RedPepper [dead link]: Ndorwa West Member of Parliament David Nahati behind the proposed draconian anti-gay bill that sparked an international outcry has said he wants to drop clauses that would see the death penalty introduced for homosexual acts. “There will be no death penalty at all…that will go,” Bahati said. Bahati said he wanted to scrap proposals to punish “aggravated homosexuality,” which includes someone deemed to be a “serial offender” with the death sentence. The report continued: However Bahati said the proposed legislation was already in the process of being changed, following recommendations made during the last parliament. “The death penalty is not part of the process that we are talking about,” Bahati said, adding he was also dropping proposals to jail family members if they failed to report gay relatives to the authorities. However, Warren Throckmorton noted that the death penalty has not been removed from the bill: As an aside, the BBC just can’t seem to get their reporting right. They again are reporting that the death penalty has been removed from the bill. Yesterday, Parliament spokeswoman Helen Kadaga told me that the bill was the same as was introduced in 2009. Bahati has said he would be open to removing the death penalty but this has never been done. In a 2011 report done by the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee, the death penalty remained in the bill. This morning I got additional confirmation that the original bill without amendments was introduced yesterday from Charles Tuhaise, Parliamentary Research Service staffer. Tuhaise said that all proposed changes to a Bill are first brought to the floor of Parliament where they are debated by the MPs. Any revisions are accepted to a bill after a majority votes in support of the revision. For now, the original bill is with the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee without amendment. Melanie Nathan blogged: Reports are divided as to whether the Bill will include the death penalty as initially tabled. Many believe the Bill cannot pass in its current form, as it is too onerous and controversial, yet members of Parliament remain defiantly homophobic and either way the future for LGBT people in Uganda is clearly in danger. […]Ugandans in Parliament who remain defiant and determined to pass the legislation, do not seem to care at this point whether or not the death penalty is finally excluded as they express homophobia and ignorance in no uncertain terms In May last year, Warren discussed section 3 of the bill, which deals with the death penalty: For now, I am going to focus on section three of the report which is where the death penalty can be found. Here is section 3 from the bill: 3. Aggravated homosexuality. (1) A person commits the offense of aggravated homosexuality where the (a) person against whom the offence is committed is below the age of 18 years; (b) offender is a person living with HIV; (c) offender is a parent or guardian of the person against whom the offence is committed; (d) offender is a person in authority over the person against whom the offence is committed; (e) victim of the offence is a person with disability; (f) offender is a serial offender, or (g) offender applies, administers or causes to be used by any man or woman any drug, matter or thing with intent to stupefy overpower him or her so as to there by enable any person to have unlawful carnal connection with any person of the same sex, (2) A person who commits the offence of aggravated homosexuality shall be liable on conviction to suffer death. (3) Where a person is charged with the offence under this section, that person shall undergo a medical examination to ascertain his or her HIV status. Call Me Kuchu is a documentary that focuses on gay rights in Uganda. Image source: Call Me Kuchu Facebook page. The bill has ridiculous clauses such as revoking registration of NGOs promoting or distributing homosexual materials and jailing the director, jailing persons who say they are married to a person of the same sex and prohibiting Uganda from becoming a party to any new international instruments that expressly include protection for homosexual behavior. Donors threatened to cut aid to Uganda citing that infringing rights and freedom of gays: Gay sex is illegal in Uganda and MPs supported their colleague to have it banned.