U.K. to Bar Uganda MP if Antigay Bill Passes

David Bahati, the member of Uganda's parliament who sponsored legislation that would impose the death penalty on gay people, will be barred from traveling to the United Kingdom if the bill passes. The fate of the antigay bill remains unclear to British diplomats.

According to London's Guardian, "Civil servants in the Foreign Office, the Department for International Development and the Borders Agency are drawing up plans to block the visa of born-again Christian MP David Bahati if he does not drop legislation that would see consenting adults who have gay sex imprisoned for life and impose the death penalty on those with HIV -- which will be called 'aggravated homosexuality.'"

Despite the diplomatic threat to rescind Bahati's visa, British officials have not received a clear sense of the bill's fate from Uganda officials.

"Ugandan government officials appear to be using stalling tactics, suggesting it will not come to a vote until 2011, deflecting pressure from a government that could change in the forthcoming general election," reports the Guardian.