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Today Uganda's parliament adjourned its legislative season without considering the horrific bill legalizing the death penalty for people accused of homosexuality.

Lawmakers had been due to debate the legislation calling for capital punishment notably for consensual gay sex where one partner has the HIV virus. The United States, a major aid donor to Uganda, said Thursday that nothing could justify passing the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Parliament speaker Edward Ssekandi said he was "adjourning this house," effectively killing off the debate over the controversial legislation for this parliament. David Bahati, the lawmaker behind the anti-gay bill, said that no bills could be passed as the cabinet was dissolved following the inauguration of President Yoweri Museveni on Thursday following a landslide election victory in February. But he said that even if the bill was not passed this session it had achieved the goal of sparking a debate that would continue when the new parliament convenes. "We have made important steps in raising the issue and that will continue," he said.

Activists warn that the bill could return in the next parliament. Earlier this week Rep. Barney Frank and the U.S. State Department denounced the bill with warnings to cut off financial aid to Uganda should it pass.

After a postponement yesterday, it appears the bill may be voted on by Uganda's parliament tomorrow.

"I was pleased when the Financial Services Committee overwhelmingly, in a bipartisan way, voted in favor of my amendment urging the Secretary of the Treasury to oppose any financial assistance from multilateral development institutions to countries that persecute people on the basis of their sexual orientation, gender identity or religious beliefs. In the discussion of the amendment I offered, I specifically mentioned the deeply troubling case of Uganda, which is now considering legislation to legally deprive people of these basic human rights. If the bill before the Ugandan parliament becomes law, it must be the policy of the United States government to oppose any aid to Uganda from the World Bank, the African Development Bank, or any other international financial institution of which we are a member." - Rep. Barney Frank, via press release.

Uganda's "kill the gays" bill is apparently being fast-tracked for a parliamentary vote within the next few days.

If enacted, the Bill would greatly broaden the criminalisation of homosexuality by introducing the death penalty for people who have previous convictions, are HIV-positive, or engage in same sex acts with people under 18 years of age. The bill also includes provisions for Ugandans who engage in same-sex sexual relations outside of Uganda, asserting that they may be extradited for punishment back to Uganda, and includes penalties for individuals, companies, media organisations, or non-governmental organisations that support LGBT rights.

There is hope that international pressure, particularly from the United States, may derail the bill yet again.

The US government has moved increasingly to tie aid to human rights, including LGBT human rights. The US Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geitner, last month indicated that the US will use its influence in world bodies which provide Uganda with a big chunk of its budget. Already Germany has stopped aid to Malawi following anti-gay moves, including criminalising lesbians, in that country and funding for a huge infrastructure project only went ahead after reassurances on human rights from Malawi's government.

All Out has launched a petition campaign to Uganda's president. Sign it here.

Box Turtle Bulletin alerts us that despite recent media reports that Uganda's "kill gays" bill had been shelved, in fact it will be debated in the national parliament next week. The bill came into being after American evangelicals visited Uganda with claims that foreign homosexuals wanted to pay Uganda's children to become gay.

The controversial Anti Homosexuality bill is one of several bills that Members of Parliament on the Legal and Parliamentary Affairs committee are set to debate when the House resumes business next week. Speaking to the media at Parliament today, the committee chairman, Stephen Tashobya said though the bill has created both local and international concern, it is up to Parliament to pass the bill. Tashobya says the committee will hold public hearings where stakeholders’ views will be heard and a report made to the House for debate and possible passing before Parliament closes the 8th Parliament.

RELATED: Earlier this week the U.S. House Financial Services Committee approved a bill that would discourage the granting of American foreign aid to nations that "physically persecute" their LGBT citizens. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, faces an uncertain future with the full House.

The U.S. House Financial Services Committee today approved Rep. Barney Frank's budget amendment that would discourage the granting of foreign aid to nations that engage in the "physical persecution" of their citizens on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identify. Michelle Garcia reports at the Advocate:

The text of the amendment reads: "The Committee urges Treasury to advocate that governments receiving assistance from the multilateral development institutions do not engage in gross violations of human rights, for example, the denial of freedom of religion, including the right to choose one’s own religion, and physical persecution based on sexual orientation or gender identity." Frank cited Uganda, a beneficiary of the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries program, as an example of a country that openly abuses its LGBT citizens. “The United States has a fairly influential voice in the development area," Frank said Tuesday. "And we should not be supportive of providing multilateral bank development funds going to the governments of countries which engage in the physical persecution of people because of their religious beliefs, sexual orientation, or gender identity.”

Frank's amendment will be added to the bill that describes the budgetary priorities of the Financial Services Committee. While it was passed out of committee with "nearly unanimous" support, it's unclear how the amendment will fare with the GOP House majority, many of whom already oppose foreign aid to some countries for differing reasons.

According to U.S. embassy cables released by Wikileaks, Ugandan panelists at a 2009 United Nations seminar on human rights openly mocked activist David Kato as he attempted to deliver his speech denouncing his country's still-pending "kill the gays" bill. Attending the meeting were the bill's author, Ugandan MP David Behati, and Pastor Martin "Eat Da Poo Poo" Ssempa. Kato was bludgeoned to death last month in a crime the corrupt Ugandan police have classified as a "personal disagreement."

Throughout his talk a member of the Ugandan Human Rights Commission "openly joked and snickered" with supporters of the bill, the diplomat claimed in the cable. The "consultative meeting" in December 2009, organised with funding from the UN, aimed to discuss the bill, which would impose the death penalty for "aggravated homosexuality" and life imprisonment for consenting adults who have gay sex. In the cable, dated 24 December 2009, the diplomat claimed Ugandan politicians, including the author of the anti-homosexuality bill, David Bahati, had channelled anger at the country's socio-political failings into "violent hatred" of gays. Other confidential memos sent between Kampala and Washington in 2009-2010 and sent to WikiLeaks paint a picture of a worsening human rights climate in the run-up to Ugandan elections Uganda's "chilling" descent from tolerance to violent homophobia and a deepening fear among gay activists, who claim they are being increasingly monitored and harassed.

According to the confidential cables, Behati believes increasing revenue from Uganda's oil industry will soon free from his nation from the influence of foreign countries, leaving them free to persecute homosexuals in whatever fashion they choose.

UPDATE: Box Turtle Bulletin has posted the diplomatic cables in their entirety as well as some excellent analysis.

"Even while admitting that the murder was 'still being investigated,' the Boston Globe was quick to lay the blame at Lively's doorstep, who, along with other pro-family experts, visited Uganda in the spring of 2009 to raise awareness of the many social and health pathologies associated with homosexual behavior. The New York Times, the BBC and NPR all interviewed Lively in recent weeks, trying to blame him for what they believe is a rising tide of homicidal anti-gay fervor in Uganda.

"Now the Daily Monitor is reporting that Enock has told police that he killed Kato because Kato had "coerced him into sodomy." Kato had promised to give him a car, a house and money in exchange for sexual favors, but when Kato didn't keep his end of the bargain and continued to attempt to force himself on Enock sexually, he bought a hammer and beat him to death with it. So this is just another horrific and tragic example of the violent domestic abuse that is not uncommon in homosexual liaisons. Research consistently indicates that rates of violence in gay relationships are several times the rate in heterosexual relationships.

"Bottom line: the major media outlets owe Scott Lively an apology of gigantic proportions. This is blood libel, and they ought to be ashamed of themselves. Their accusations are irresponsible, baseless and tawdry, and show nothing but contempt for honesty and the truth. Will Lively get the apology he deserves? You could die holding your breath waiting for that day to come." - American Family Association radio host Bryan Fischer, predictably buying the story of the murderous Ugandan police.

Despite the bone-chilling temperatures, a large crowd of LGBT activists, allies, and local politicians stood in the slush and snow tonight near the United Nations to memorialize slain Ugandan activist David Kato, who now stands accused being responsible for his own murder by the Ugandan police.

Speakers included the head of the International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission, gay Ugandan nationals, gay clergy, and two NYC council members, all of whom vowed to get the truth about Kato's murder from the Ugandan government, which receives $500 million in U.S. aid annually. Money being paid, it was pointed out, to enable the brutalization and murders of LGBT people.

Not forgotten at the event was the murderous complicity of American and Ugandan evangelicals in this brutal crime and speakers repeatedly spat out the names of Scott Lively, Rick Warren, and Martin Ssempa, all of whom were promised that their names and reputations will forever be linked to this outrage.

After the vigil, candles were lit and the crowd proceeded silently two blocks away to the Uganda Mission, where a Ugandan lesbian activist laid a letter of demands and flowers against a placard depicting Kato which had been propped outside the building's entrance. As that occurred, the hundred or so people behind the barricades shouted up at the windows of Uganda House, "Stop the violence, stop the hate! Do your job, investigate!"

SLIDESHOW: Full-screen photos are here.

Aaaand here we have it. As predicted, the Ugandan police, who have a track record of beating and killing gay people, are now claiming that David Kato's killer was forced to murder him. Because Kato was a dirty homosexual who wanted sex. Or so an "anonymous police source" is claiming to the press. From the Uganda Monitor:

A man whom police arrested yesterday on allegations of killing David Kato, a human rights activist, has reportedly told police that the deceased coerced him into sodomy. David Kato, 46, an advocacy officer for the gay rights group, Sexual Minorities Uganda, was found with head wounds at his home in Bukusa, Mukono District but died on his way to hospital last Wednesday.

Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba said the suspect had been hiding in Nakabago village, Mukono District. “It is true the suspect has been arrested but we need to record his statement first before giving a formal statement,” Ms Nabakooba said yesterday. But a police source, who preferred anonymity because he is not authorised to talk to the press, said the suspect confessed to killing Kato because he was reportedly tired of engaging in homosexual practices.

“We have taken him to Mukono Magistrate’s Court to record an extrajudicial statement,” the source said. “He told us that he killed Kato after he failed to give him a car, a house and money he promised as rewards for having sex with him,” the source said.

Surely you can understand the predicament the Ugandan government finds themselves in. They couldn't ignore or even sanction the murder of a gay man, as they normally would, due to the international publicly surrounding the case. But they also couldn't allow the murder to be construed as politically motivated, lest the resultant outrage dry up those annual millions in foreign aid.

And don't overlook that this so-called "motive" precisely fits the long-running Christianist claim that evil local gays are using using Western-supplied money to recruit Uganda's helpless youth into homosexuality, a charge repeated in the very issue of the newspaper that called for Kato's murder.

We will never get the truth, you can bet on that.

RELATED: Peter LaBarbera and Matt Barber are triumphantly tweeting messages like "Uganda 'anti-gay' fairy tale implodes. Killer did it because Kato wouldn't pay him for sodomy as promised."

"Uganda is being murdered. The nation once called 'The Pearl of Africa' by Winston Churchill, a lush and beautiful country as fertile as the Nile Delta. The murderers are the lavender Marxists, the now-global network of sexual revolutionaries bent on remaking the entire world in their own perverted image, whose juggernaut has toppled even once mighty Britain, crushing under their lavender boots after eight centuries the symbol of its Christian power: the Magna Charta, whose first principle had proclaimed 'The English church must be free!'

"These revolutionists of Sodom, who march triumphantly through all the major cities of the western world to flaunt their defeat of moral law, and who hold both Hollywood and the heart of America’s president in their iron grip: These very same zealots have fixed their malevolent gaze on Christian Uganda. [snip] There is indeed evil in Uganda today, but it is not the reaction of Christian and Moslem citizens to the rape of their culture. It is the pink-gloved hand of western powers that are cutting the throat of Africa’s most God-fearing country, and one of the world‘s most promising Christian democracies." - Pedophile ally and SPLC-certified hate group head Scott Lively, in a piece posted by anti-gay mental case Ryan Sorba on his Young Conservatives of California site.

Last week the disreputable Ugandan police insisted that David Kato's murder was a mere robbery gone lethal and had nothing to do with his status as the nation's most prominent LGBT activist. Now the police have changed their story after arresting a man they say has confessed to the killing. Which now isn't robbery-related.

"The prime suspect, Nsubuga Enock, was arrested today at around 4pm when he went to visit his girlfriend," police spokesman Vincent Ssetake told Reuters. He has confessed to the murder. It wasn't a robbery and it wasn't because Kato was an activist. It was a personal disagreement but I can't say more than that." Ssetake said that Enock would appear in court on Wednesday evening. Police said last week that Enock, whom they described as a "well-known thief," had been staying with Kato after the activist bailed him out of prison on January 24.

Gay activists aren't buying this latest version of the crime either. Kato's murder coming just weeks after his "HANG THEM" outing in a local newspaper is extremely suspiciously timed and some fear that we'll never get the truth from the Ugandan government. Why would we? The Ugandan government has a huge stake in covering up the true motive in Kato's murder, as international human rights groups are now threatening to lobby for an end to aid to Uganda. There are many millions of dollars at stake, some of which, local activists apparently suspect, may make it back to the family of the confessed killer.

The best-case scenario that can probably come out of this now, should the latest police story stick and Kato's killing is ruled a "personal disagreement," is that American anti-gay activists might tread more carefully when inflaming violence against gays in other countries. We can only hope.

Tomorrow morning in Washington, DC, activists from GetEQUAL will picket the National Prayer Breakfast, where members of the infamously anti-gay and shadowy GOP congressional group The Family will gather with other politicians and lobbyists. The Family has been outed as supportive of Uganda's gay death penalty bill. Details here.

The International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission is organizing a memorial vigil for murdered Ugandan activist David Kato. The starting point of the procession is not yet determined, but attendees will finish at the Ugandan embassy. I'll post more details as they are known.

Word is that tonight Rachel Maddow will have a big exclusive story on slain Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato. I'll post clips here immediately afterward.

UPDATE: The Uganda story teased earlier today was obviously bumped for breaking developments in Egypt.

Ugandan citizen Brenda Namiggade was already being escorted to London's Heathrow airport tonight when word came that Britain's Home Office had granted a temporary reprieve to her deportation. This comes after gay activists earlier today served UK Home Secretary Theresa May with a petition bearing over 40,000 names.

According to the BBC, some in the British government doubt that Namiggade is actually a lesbian and suspect she is using the claim to stay in the country. Namiggade has repeatedly stated that she is gay and that she fears for her life should she be returned to Uganda.

Her lawyer, Abdulrahman Jafar, said he would argue that Ms Namiggade should be allowed to remain in the UK regardless of her sexuality. "The press coverage about her activities certainly expose her to a real risk if she is to be returned to Uganda," he said. Ms Namigadde, who was held at a detention centre just outside London, has told the BBC's Network Africa programme she was "shaking" with fear at the prospect of returning to Uganda. She said she fled to the UK in 2002 after being beaten and victimised because of her sexuality. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has said people facing persecution for their sexual orientation in Uganda should be given refugee status in other countries.

According to the head of the UK's Border Agency, an immigration judge had previously ruled Namigadde as "not homosexual."

Keeping with his theme of the inherent murderous violence of gay men, today repulsive anti-gay activist Scott Lively issued a statement raising the possibility that Uganda LGBT activist David Kato was killed by another gay man.

Ugandan homosexual activist David Cato was murdered yesterday in his home. To my knowledge, no one has been arrested for the crime so the motive at this time is purely a matter of conjecture. CNN is reporting that money and clothing had been stolen from his house, which would suggest a run-of-the-mill criminal intent. There is also the possibility that he was killed by a “gay” lover, as was the case with another homosexual activist two weeks ago in New York. Carlos Castro was castrated with a corkscrew by his boyfriend and bled to death in his hotel room.

The Boston Globe calls Lively's statement "feeble and callous." And note that not only does Lively (probably intentionally) misspell Kato's name, he fails to express any regret over the murder. As for police claims that the crime was motivated by robbery, here's what Box Turtle Bulletin's Jim Burroway thinks:

Police are attributing David Kato’s murder to robbery. We’ve seen it often enough elsewhere in Europe and America where local authorities are loathe to investigate hate crimes. The mere fact that items are missing doesn’t mean that a hate crime did not occur. If a homophobe is burning a gay man to death, for example, why not take a watch as a trophy and money to party with later? Yet that’s often enough for police to quickly try to eliminate the stigma of a hate crime in the local community. If police in this country are very resistant to investigate crimes as hate crime even when the evidence for those charges are overwhelming, how can we expect anything different in Uganda?

LGBT activists staged a vigil for David Kato outside of London's Uganda High Commission today, after which they delivered a 40,000-name petition to UK Home Secretary Theresa May, demanding that Britain not send lesbian asylum-seeker Brenda Namigadde back to Uganda. Namigadde says she fears that she too will be murdered if forced to return. Add your name to the petition here.

Hundreds gathered at the funeral for slain Ugandan LGBT activist David Kato today, where fights broke out after the pastor conducting the ceremony raged against homosexuals.

"The world has gone crazy," the pastor told the congregation through a microphone. "People are turning away from the scriptures. They should turn back, they should abandon what they are doing. You cannot start admiring a fellow man." Gay activists, wearing T-shirts featuring Kato's face with sleeves coloured with the gay pride flag, then stormed the pulpit and grabbed the microphone. "It is ungodly," the pastor shouted, before being blocked from sight. An unidentified female activist then began to shout from the pulpit. "Who are you to judge others?" she shouted. "We have not come to fight. You are not the judge of us. As long as he's gone to God his creator, who are we to judge Kato?" Locals intervened on the side of the pastor and scuffles broke out before he was taken away to Kato's father's house to calm the situation.

Villagers then refused to bury Kato's coffin, forcing his gay friends to carry it to the gravesite where they buried it themselves. One activist lamented: "After we had read statements from everybody, including Obama, after all the nice things friends said about David, that this man could stand up and throw dirt at someone who should be resting in peace. It's just disgusting."

"The leadership of Exodus international and its member ministries are grieved over the tragic murder of Ugandan gay activist David Kato and we send our sincerest condolences to his family & friends. [snip] Exodus International calls on President & Mrs. Yoweri Kaguta Museveni to lead their government into an era of treating all of their neighbors as they would like to be treated. It is abominable that a nation with Christian leadership would endorse or allow anyone to be brutally murdered. In the words of Jesus Himself, those who are without sin cast the first stone. Exodus International condemns the murder of David Kato and calls for justice to be fairly applied, not covered up, when the murderers are caught." - Alan Chambers, president of Exodus International, whose board of directors member Don Schmierer is one of the three American evangelicals blamed for the explosion in anti-gay violence and legislation in Uganda.

(Via - Box Turtle Bulletin)