Parliaments in France, Uruguay and New Zealand have passed legislation to permit equal marriage in the past few weeks. In New Zealand collective singing in parliament greeted the news – the joy of song permeates so much of the ways in which people connect with each other there and the celebrations of equality were in no small part about connection and community.

Ugandan members of parliament have said they want to discuss and vote on the Anti-Homosexuality bill in private.

With many fearing retribution from Western interests, many MPs say they are pushing for a closed-door session.

This will mean no member of the press or public will be allowed access to the debate.

Uganda’s President Yoweri Museveni has said persecution against gay people will be investigated while apparently distancing himself from the nation’s proposed ‘Kill the Gays Bill’.

Museveni was speaking with human rights activists from a US delegation led by Kerry Kennedy, the president of the Robert F Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights.

The Canadian government has spent thousands of dollars quietly fighting Uganda’s ‘Kill The Gays’ bill.

The government has spent more than $200,000 (US$194k, €150k) helping gay rights initiatives and projects in the African country.

Speaking to Canada’s National Post, a senior Department of Foreign Affairs official said: ‘Canadian officials have conveyed Canada’s concerns with the bill to Uganda’s Foreign Ministry’.

The British gay play producer who was deported from Uganda for being ‘undesirable’ has called his situation ‘crazy’.

David Cecil was originally arrested in September last year after the play, which tells the story of a gay businessman murdered by his colleagues, was performed in private theaters. The charges were later dropped.

On 6 February, Cecil was rearrested and locked up for five days before being deported to the UK.

The Canadian government has stopped funding to Crossroads, an Evangelical charity working in Uganda, for being homophobic.

According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation the charity that describes homosexuality as a ‘perversion’ and a ‘sin’ will receive no further funding until officials will investigate the organization.

President Barack Obama has spoken at the annual National Prayer Breakfast, sponsored by the Fellowship Foundation which allgedly supports Uganda’s Kill The Gays bill.

Obama did not heed to calls by civil right groups to boycott the event today (7 February) over allegations the religious right evangelical organization (also known as ‘The Family’) has aided the rise in anti-gay hate in Uganda.

A gay couple who fled from Uganda’s homophobic laws have legally married in Sweden.

Lawrence Kaala and Jimmy Sswerwadda, who claim to be the first ever Ugandan gay couple to legally marry, said their vows on Saturday (26 January).

The couple married on the two-year anniversary of the murder of David Kato, one of the African country’s most famous LGBT activists.

A British university is stopping accreditation for courses at a Ugandan university in response to the proposed law jailing and possibly killing gay people.

The University of Buckingham has announced it is ‘increasingly concerned’ about Uganda’s human rights record, and wanted the country’s Victoria University to include a clause that no person would be discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation.

An anti-gay evangelist will face trial for ‘crimes against humanity’ on Monday (7 January).

American preacher Scott Lively, who supports the Uganda ‘Kill the Gays’ bill, is being sued by a minority group who say the evangelist has helped play a part in the persecution, arrest and murder of gay people.

Sexual Minorities Uganda is using a statute that allows foreign parties to sue in American courts, which will reportedly be used for the first time for crimes against gay people.

A court in Uganda has thrown out a case against UK theatre producer David Cecil, who was charged over a play about the condition of gay people.

Cecil told the BBC the case was dismissed either because of a ‘lack of will or a lack of evidence’ to try him.

On New Year's Eve, Joseph Kaweesi, LGBT youth worker and advocate, was arrested by Ugadan police and charged with crimes relating to homosexuality.

According to reports from Uganda, Kaweesi, one of the founder of the LGBT group Youth on Rock Foundation, is being held at Kawempe police station, in Kampala, capital of Uganda.