Americans Willing To Cut Ugandan Aid Over Anti-Gay Law

Uganda has distinguished itself as one of the most bigoted nations in the world. Last month they put their bigotry into law, when their president signed a bill that would put people in prison just because they happen to be homosexual. That law established prison sentences for homosexuality of up to life in prison.

This has made a few right-wing fundamentalists in America happy, and a few of them even encouraged the Ugandans to pass that law -- but most Americans are aghast over this institutionalized (and now legal) bigotry. And they would support the American government taking action against Uganda -- in the form of cutting financial aid to that country. A full 62% of the public, a very significant majority, say the government should cut financial aid to Uganda, and make it clear that the cut is in response to their legal bigotry. Only 21% of Americans would oppose cutting the aid (and 17% don't know what to think).

Most Americans think the Ugandan law is a bad one, and as the chart below shows, that even extends to people in the U.S. that oppose either same-sex marriage or civil unions. Fully half of these people, who are too bigoted to allow homosexuals to get full equal rights in this country, think the Ugandans have gone too far by making homosexuality a crime.

These charts were made from information in a recent YouGov Poll that was done on February 25th and 26th of a nationwide sample of 1,000 adults (and has a margin of error of about 4 points).