By Reuters – When Frank Mugisha came out two decades ago, being gay in Uganda could be lonely and uncomfortable, but it was rarely a matter of life and death. Since then, as Mugisha has emerged as the country’s most prominent LGBTQ rights activist, the perils have multiplied. In 2011, his friend and colleague David Kato was bludgeoned to death. Mugisha regularly receives death threats. Politicians and religious organizations have fanned anti-gay sentiment and lobbied for harsh legislation, culminating in parliament’s passage last month of a bill that would criminalize even identifying as LGBTQ. “The Ugandan population has been radicalized to fear and hate homosexuals,” Mugisha, 38, told Reuters during an interview outside the capital, Kampala. “If I was seven, nine, twelve, fourteen, I don’t think I would tell anyone I am gay right now,” he said. And yet, Mugisha says he will not give an inch in the face of the new bill, which is awaiting President Yoweri Museveni’s signature.