Nearly 100 protesters rallied outside the Ugandan Embassy in London yesterday to protest Uganda's draconian anti-gay bill.

The bill, which is being debated in Uganda's Parliament, proposes life imprisonment and, in some cases, execution of gays. A recent report suggested that Uganda may modify the bill slightly to remove some of the more extreme punishments, but the bill's author denies that. "We are not going to yield to any international pressure – we cannot allow people to play with the future of our children," David Bahati told the Guardian.

Activists Peter Tatchell, Godwyns Onwuchekwa, Rev Rowland Jide Macaulay and Bisi Alimi. Photo taken Dec 10, by Brett Lock of OutRage! See more pics here.

UK-based queer rights group OutRage! co-organized yesterday's protest in London. From their report:

The keynote speakers were gay Ugandan John Bosco and straight Ugandan human rights activist, Michael Senyonjo. 

John Bosco was recently jailed in Uganda, after he was illegally and forcibly returned to Uganda by the British Home office while seeking asylum in the UK. 

He condemned the Anti-Homosexuality Bill as "an attack on the civil liberties of all Ugandans," denouncing it as "dividing Ugandans against each other and requiring people to report on their own family members who are gay." 

Michael Senyonjo told the crowd: "In the last five years we have seen Idi Amin return to Uganda and his name is (President) Yoweri Museveni. We cannot allow fascism to return to Uganda. He should leave power and go because he is not taking the country anywhere but to disaster," he said. 

Meanwhile, NBC's Rachel Maddow keeps up the heat on US evangelicals for their ties to Uganda's anti-gay politics. In yesterday's segment, she takes on pastor Rick Warren:

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Read more on Xtra.ca:

• Raising Uganda: Did Harper do enough?
  
• Religious forces behind Uganda's anti-gay bill
  

Okay, maybe you don't have 17 minutes to spare right this very moment but seriously, watching Rachel Maddow eviscerate "ex-gay" advocate and "therapist" Richard Cohen is perhaps the most fun you'll have this afternoon.  I laughed out loud when she answered his fact rebuttals with, "I'm reading it from your book, dude."  It's a thing of beauty:

Speaking of dudes, one of the greatest has chimed in on the upcoming gay marriage vote in New Jersey this week.  On his website, Bruce Springsteen says:

"I've long believed in and have always spoken out for the rights of same sex couples and...urge those who support equal treatment for our gay and lesbian brothers and sisters to let their voices be heard now." 

Springsteen's committment to gay rights goes back at least as far as 1993, when he wrote his first film theme for the AIDS drama Philadelphia and he did an excellent interview with The Advocate afterward [Word document]. Let's hope New Jersey remembers that he's The Boss.

While our freedom to marry is debated in the States, here in Canada we're debating our freedom to have park sex (funny how conservatives hate both, no?).  A popular spot in Truro, Nova Scotia is under scrutiny and the town council -- who refused to allow a Pride flag in 2007 -- says all the cruising makes it uncomfortable for families having those late-night picnics. C'mon, dudes, who are you kidding?

Here at the Roundup, we enjoy feeding the world a steady diet of "gays-good-homophobes-bad" along with the occasional nudity and some general silliness.  Simple, no?  But some days are weirder than others:

Today's weirdest story is the ballad of Dwan Prince, who was gaybashed in Brooklyn in 2005 but is now thanking his attacker for literally beating him straight.  "Steve you changed me!" Prince writes in his letter to prison, "So hopefully when you get out we can hang out...you can find me a female I can love and can love me."  Gang, I think we've just found Liza Minnelli's next husband.

But if our "team" loses Prince, maybe we can gain the "bicurious at best" director Kevin Smith, who has insured that I'll never look at the Stanley Cup in quite the same way again:

I love Smith's vision of the 'Twilight' generation but perhaps the Dutch are way ahead of him -- this clip of kindergartners is surprising and adorable: 

I'm amazed by these kids because I'm so used to hearing the opposite from their so-called defenders -- the kind of people former fundamentalist Frank Schaeffer discusses with the ever-awesome Rachel Maddow:

Didn't see that coming.  What will the Dutch children think!

It seems everyone's had a shot at Perez Hilton this past day, following his scuffle with The Black Eyed Peas' will.i.am, his Twittering for help and his subsequent hissy fit on his website.  If a straight man punches a gay man for calling him a "faggot," is it a hate crime?

None of this should matter much to anyone else -- much less make national news -- but Hilton is one of the most famous gay men in North America.  He's very visible -- even more so when, well, black-eyed.  Like it or not, when he speaks, people pay attention -- even the ones with cum dribbling out of their mouths.

And visibility is what's it about. I'll take insufferable Perez any day over the people who wish he'd be silent, people like US politician John Eichelberger, who says gay people don't need equal rights because those in charge "allow them to exist."  Here's the gory details:

Be warned:  the internet will blow up tonight at 11pm EST when the final two-hour episode of "Battlestar Galactica" ends, having no doubt thrilled and/or angered its legion of fans.  But BSG writer Jane Espenson (also pulling double-duty on the creepy-sexy "Dollhouse") reminds us that there's still more to come and the show's sci-fi/soap-opera/prequel spin-off "Caprica" will also include gay characters. Hopefully the next series will capture both the brilliant heights of BSG and its gratuitous use of actors in towels:

I'm less excited about the new movie "I Love You, Man" -- despite my obvious interest in its costars -- because I'm just tired of this giggly high-school "bromance" meme but The Globe and Mail's RM Vaughn got to ask the guys all the tough questions.

Oh, to have his job.  Or that of Rachel Maddow, who's obviously delighted at Barack Obama's latest Bush-repair-job:

But jealousy is a terrible thing and I've got RuPaul to call me out on it in her latest -- and most NSFW Japaninsane -- video: