Bahati came to international attention in October 2009 after introducing the
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill as a
Private Member's Bill on 13 October proposing that a new offence be created in Uganda named "aggravated
homosexuality" which would be punishable as a
capital offence. The proposals included plans to introduce the death penalty for gay adults who had sex with those of the same sex under 18, with disabled people, or when the accused party is
HIV-positive, or for those previously convicted of homosexuality-related offences. Journalist and gay rights activist
Jeff Sharlet (winner of the
International Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission's Outspoken Award) claims that in a private conversation Bahati expressed a desire to "kill every last gay person." Sharlet suggested that the bill came about as a result of Bahati's membership in the Christian group
The Family. He revealed that Bahati reportedly first floated the idea of the bill (which at that time included the death penalty for homosexual assaults on minors, disabled people, or by knowingly HIV positive men) during The Family's Uganda National Prayer Breakfast in 2008. Bob Hunter, a member of The Family, gave an interview to
NPR in December 2009 in which he acknowledged Bahati's connection but argued that no American associates support the bill. After news of the gay execution law broke, Bahati was disinvited from the 2010
U.S. National Prayer Breakfast. When pressed by Maddow for "recruitment" tactics, he stated that "They go to a school, teach them, entice them with money, to lure them into this practice". Bahati asserted that videos are being circulated in Uganda that state that "a man sleeping with a man is okay," which were being used for "recruitment". Maddow challenged this assertion, stating that "recruitment of children by gays is a common myth in any and all countries that have debated laws like that proposed in Uganda." On 20 December 2013, the
Parliament of Uganda passed the
Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Act, 2014 with the death penalty proposal dropped in favour of life in prison. The bill was signed into law by the
President of Uganda on 24 February 2014. On 1 August 2014, however, the
Constitutional Court of Uganda ruled the Act invalid on procedural grounds. ==See also==