Bear in mind that the law also includes a three year prison sentence for anyone who becomes aware of a male homosexual or a lesbian and does not inform the authorities within 24 hours. So if you are not prepared to turn someone in for death, you have to face a punishment yourself. Heaven help any Ugandan Underground Railroad.

The death penalty does have limits on it, apparently. It is for people who have had a relationship with an underage person of the same sex, have relationships when they know they are HIV positive, and one other case which escapes me, but probably includes force or non-consensual sex.

Part of the arguments about it concern the idea that homosexuals groom a child from a school and promise them rewards for "converting" another child, and "once two children have gone, the whole school is lost". There is a strong idea that homosexuality is a learned or chosen behaviour, and not inborn.

But even so, it is appalling, and that it should be derived in the first place from British colonial law, and now American interference, is more so.

Penny