Seventy or so years ago, homosexuals were arrested across Nazi
Europe – around 100,000 of whom between 5 and 15 thousand were
sent to concentration camps, where 60% of them are believed to
have been killed. Their place in the Holocaust was not
recognised officially for many years – after all, survivors
could not tell their stories openly in societies where their
sexuality was still criminalised and stigmatised. Today in
Uganda the Anti-Homosexuality Bill, apparently withdrawn under
intense international pressure, has been reintroduced to
parliament. It would broaden the criminalisation of same-sex
relations by creating two categories: aggravated homosexuality
(e.g. acts committed by someone who is HIV positive, is a parent
or authority figure, a repeat offender, commits acts on a minor
or using intoxicating substances),which would attract the death
penalty, or the offense of homosexuality punishable merely by
life imprisonment. This legislation extends to those who engage
in same-sex relations outside of Ugan