There seems to be a noticeable pattern across the African diaspora in which homophobia is not only tolerated but encouraged. You'd think that would be bad enough, because it invites violence against people who are gay, but now in Uganda, antigay sentiment seems to have morphed into making homosexuality a capital crime.

Right now, Uganda's lawmakers are seriously considering condemning people who are caught in homosexual acts or are known to be gay to death. Anyone said to be "aiding and abetting" them would also be subject to harsh prison penalties. Current law will get a gay person 14 years to life imprisonment, meaning the gay community is driven largely underground there.

Ironically, Uganda was once heralded as one of Africa's most progressive nations regarding the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

Now, there are draconian laws all over the world, and Uganda is just part of a long line of nations that attack human rights and deny freedoms to its citizens. Honestly, though, I fail to see how creating a law that would put a person to death for his or her sexual orientation is any different than apartheid or Nazism.

One major point that makes sense is that this negative tide stems from anti-gay legislation in America. Many politically influential people in Uganda are also religious leaders. They take their cues from America's fundamentalist Christian right movement, which makes it clear that God is punishing society for having gay people in it. The religious right has tried for years to export its sick ideas to other nations, and apparently it is seeing success in Africa.

The danger in such a law is not even in the moral questioning, but in the extreme risk to scientific and medical progress. The concept is really just like the whole "DL" phenomenon in America's black community. Since we vilify gay people so badly, using religion as a foundation for condemning it, gay people are driven into clandestine cliques, where dishonesty, masking and high-risk behavior are prevalent. This encourages the spread of HIV not only among themselves, but to the women they have relationships with to escape the social stigma attached to that lifestyle.

The same thing has a serious chance of happening in Uganda. Anyone unknowingly carrying HIV would be discouraged from getting tested for fear of being suspected of being gay, then falling victim to a witch hunt and eventually being executed. So instead, they'd probably feel better remaining silent and subsequently continue to spread the virus in a region that has been ravaged by it.

Perhaps the United Nations can step in and condemn such a law before it even takes effect. If so, maybe it would save thousands of lives, not only in Uganda but in other developing countries that would undoubtedly follow its dangerously negative precedent.

Last year, BV readers made it clear of their voracious opposition to my stance on gay hate crimes in Jamaica. Many, rather than separating their own prejudices from the vehement acts of violence against human beings, chose to deride anyone who is gay to the point of justifying brutalizing and even killing gay men and women.

I felt then and I feel now this sort of notion is abhorrently stupid.

Even if homosexuality were something criminal, would we end it by beating it out of people? By killing them? We've waged a war on drugs for the better part of 40 years by prosecuting, incarcerating and incriminating an entire community, but that hasn't stopped the flow of drugs into this country one bit.

Having lived in Africa myself, I know how important religion is there. There are many faiths across the continent, and many cling steadfastly to their beliefs, which is fine. For Western Christianity to influence the murder of innocent people -- which is what this will amount to -- without stepping in with a supposed message of love and forgiveness is the height of hypocrisy.

History remembers many in Germany who stood by and applauded Hitler as he killed people at whim. How will history remember the fundamentalist Christians with world influence who stood by as an entire nation legislates killing human beings?