Uganda’s President told CNN’s Christiane Amanpour that homosexuality is a western import and claimed that gay people rarely face discrimination in the African nation. “I want to inform the world that those homosexuals were not killed as some people are claiming,” Yoweri Museveni said. “We never exhibit our sexual acts in public. I have — I have, for instance, never kissed my wife in public…Therefore, the problem with exhibitionism and the second problem would be trying to lure young children into homosexuality”:

AMANPOUR: As you know, the rest of the world, certainly the Western world, doesn’t agree with you on this. And there was a major public outcry, a major international outcry when this first homosexual bill went through, anti-homosexual bill, that included the death penalty….I mean, do you — is that acceptable in your country?

MUSEVENI: What does the world not agree with us about? Because I have told you, there is no discrimination. There is no persecution. Certainly there is no killing. The only thing that is controversial, not only for homosexuals, but for all forms of sexual acts, is exhibitionism. You don’t kiss in public, whether you are gay or not. [...]

AMANPOUR: David Cato, a famous homosexual activist, was beaten to death in Uganda, according to press reports.

MUSEVENI: That is (inaudible) was not killed for being a homosexual. He was killed for something else.

AMANPOUR: What were those other reasons?

MUSEVENI: Well, I did not check with the police before I came here, but he had some personal quarrels (ph) with some of his partners.

Watch it:

In 2010, a Ugandan newspaper published the names and photos of the 100 “top” gays and lesbians, resulting in attacks against at least four Ugandans. In January of 2011, David Kato — a prominent activist — was found dead.

Polls still show that 95 percent of Ugandans favor criminalizing homosexuality — and many back the infamous “kill gays bill.” However, equality activists believe that steady growth of public advocacy for gender issues is showing progress. A recent march organized by Sexual Minorities Uganda, for instance, had 30 participants, as opposed to just four at a similar march four years ago. Activist Frank Mugisha points out that the mere fact the nation is having a national conversation about the issue of homosexuality — hostile though it may be — represents a change from a time when it was so taboo people would not even talk about it.

Mitt Romney — who at an earlier point in his career had promised to advance the equality of gay and lesbian people — is scheduled to deliver the Commencement address at Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University on May 12, an Evangelical Christian college that refuses to recognize people or ideas that don’t adhere to its social conservative worldview.

The university — founded by the late Rev. Jerry Falwell in 1971 — seeks to impress on its students a “commitment to the Christian life” that “leads people to Jesus Christ as the Lord of the universe and their own personal Savior” and forbids openly gay enrollees. Students are required to abide by a strict Code of Conduct, which prohibits them from engaging in “[n]on-marital sexual relations,” drinking, smoking, watching R-rated movies, dancing, cursing or hugging for longer than three seconds. In 2009, the school attracted controversy after it revoked its recognition of a Democratic club, because “[t]he Democratic Party platform is contrary to the mission of Liberty University and to Christian doctrine.” The school condemned the party for supporting abortion rights, “same-sex marriage, hate crimes, LGBT rights, and socialism.”

To that end, Liberty is heavily invested in the anti-gay and ex-gay movement. The school withdrew from the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2010 to protest the inclusion of a gay rights group and hosted a one-day symposium to address the consequences of being gay. The event offered sessions on “[u]nderstanding Same-sex Attractions and Their Consequences” and “Homosexual Rights and First Amendment Freedoms: Can They Truly Coexist?” Liberty University law professors Matt Barber and Judith Reisman have also linked gay and lesbian rights to “the pedophile movement,” while the school’s affiliates describe marriage equality as a “rebellion against God” and claim that gay people are more likely to commit suicide because they know “what they are doing is unnatural, is wrong, [and] is immoral.”

Significantly, this isn’t the first time Romney has embraced conservative Christian Evangelicals in an effort to endear himself to Republican voters. In 2007, he addressed Regent University, the school founded by televangelist Pat Robertson.

Rachel Maddow traced the mainstreaming of the ex-gay movement on her MSNBC show last night — from its rise in 1973 in defiance of the American Psychiatric Association’s decision to declassify homosexuality as a mental illness, to the influential 2001 study by Robert Spitzer, who found that some gay people could change their sexual orientation. Spitzer’s findings bolstered the ex-gay movement, since he had led the charge to rewrite the definition of homosexuality in 1973, and helped advocates find acceptance in the heart of conservative anti-gay politics.

But last week, the 80-year-old scientist dealt a devastating blow to his loudest proponents. In an interview with The American Prospect, Spitzer retracted his own ex-gay study, noting that “The findings can be considered evidence for what those who have undergone ex-gay therapy say about it, but nothing more.” Watch Maddow explain the history of reparative therapy and her interview with Gabriel Arana, the reporter who broke the story:

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Tom Ridge, the former Homeland Security Secretary and Republican governor from Pennsylvania, called on the GOP to embrace diversity and accept “the gay community.” Speaking to the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, Ridge said that most Americans have adopted a “live and let live” attitude towards gay people and called on his party to do the same:

“I think, as a party, we sometimes come across as very judgmental and very self-righteous, and that doesn’t play well to a lot of people,” he said. “Not just on political grounds, but in terms of the culture. We accept diversity in many different ways, and we need to be more clear about that and careful to express that.”

In particular, Ridge urged a more expansive approach to what he termed “the gay community,” noting that increased familiarity with gay people tends to lead to less judgmental politics. “I think that’s the right way to be,” he said. “Younger Americans on both sides of the aisle are saying, ‘Live and let live.’ ” Asked about same-sex marriage, Ridge said he had no particular point of view. “It’s one of those situations where I’d leave it up to the state.”

Ridge — who is also pro-choice — joins a long list of Republicans who have urged for greater acceptance of LGBT people including, Vice President Dick Cheney and former presidential candidate Jon Huntsman. Ridge has endorsed Mitt Romney for president.