British and Canadian Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper join the crusade against Uganda's anti-gay bill ~ LGBT News

British and Canadian Prime Ministers Gordon Brown and Stephen Harper join the crusade against Uganda's anti-gay bill

Gordon Brown has been caught up in a gay rights row rocking the Commonwealth.

The British Prime Minister had an uncomfortable encounter with Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni, who is facing an angry backlash over legislation to introduce the death penalty for homosexuals.

The bill is currently before Uganda’s parliament and is designed to strengthen colonial-era laws that already criminalize gay sex.

Officials said Mr Brown - who was seated next to President Museveni at an official banquet for Commonwealth leaders in Trinidad on Friday - had made his opposition to the proposal clear.

Gay rights campaigners say Uganda should be thrown out of the 53-nation Commonwealth group of nations unless it backtracks on the anti-gay law.

But leaders of African countries, many of which have longstanding laws restricting homosexuality, believe Mr Brown and the leaders of other liberal nations should not lecture them on morality.

Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Bill proposes death by hanging for 'serial offenders' or those who commit same-sex acts while they are HIV positive.

It imposes a sentence of life imprisonment for touching another person with the intent to have homosexual relations.

Membership of gay organisations and funding for them, advocacy of gay human rights and the provision of condoms or safer sex advice to gay people will result in up to seven years jail for promoting homosexuality.

Failing to report violators to the police within 24 hours will incur three years behind bars.

The new legislation will also apply to Ugandans who commit gay offences while living abroad, even in countries where such behaviour is not against the law.

The legislation has been introduced by a government MP and given time to proceed through Uganda's parliament by President Museveni.

Downing Street sources said Mr Brown had raised the issue when the two came face-to-face, adding: 'You can take it that he wasn't supporting the idea.'

Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper, also at the summit, joined in the condemnation of the legislation.

His spokesman said: 'If adopted, a bill further criminalizing homosexuality would constitute a significant step backwards for the protection of human rights.'

Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell said Mr Brown and other Commonwealth leaders should go further.

He accused them of a 'systematic, persistent failure to condemn homophobic discrimination and violence'.

'Some of the key principles of the Commonwealth are equality, non-discrimination, opportunity for all, liberty of the individual and human dignity,' he said.

'Of the 53 Commonwealth member states, over 40 still criminalize same-sex relations, mostly under anti-gay laws that were originally imposed by the British government in the nineteenth century, during the period of colonial rule. '

'They criminalize otherwise law-abiding citizens and contribute to a hostile social atmosphere which demonizes lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people as unnatural, abnormal and criminal.'

James Chapman, Daily Mail

Photo: Tom Hanson/Canadian Press