Uganda Tabloid Names 200 'Top' Homosexuals

List appears day after anti-gay law signed
By Matt Cantor,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 25, 2014 10:25 AM CST
Uganda Tabloid Names 200 'Top' Homosexuals
A Ugandan reads a copy of the "Red Pepper" tabloid newspaper in Kampala, Uganda, Tuesday, Feb. 25, 2014.   (AP Photo/Rebecca Vassie)

Yesterday, Uganda's president made "aggravated homosexuality" punishable by life in prison; today, a tabloid has printed a list of Ugandans it says are gay. The Red Pepper headline reads, "EXPOSED! Uganda's 200 Top Homos Named," per CNN. The AP adds that the list, which was accompanied by some photos, includes some Ugandans who had not identified themselves as gay. Similar lists have previously been published in the country.

President Yoweri Museveni yesterday told CNN that gays are "disgusting. ... I've been told recently that what they do is terrible," he added. "But I was ready to ignore that if there was proof that that's how he is born, abnormal. But now the proof is not there." His comments come after government scientists supposedly found that being gay is "learned." Meanwhile, the White House has slammed the new law, and John Kerry says the US is reviewing its ties with Uganda. Ugandan gay rights activist Pepe Julian Onziema— who is on the list along with a hip-hop star and a priest—claims that people attempted suicide in advance of the new law. "They are like, 'I'm not going to live to see this country kill me, so I would rather take my life.'" (More Uganda stories.)

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