CNN wants you to believe that Uganda is threatening to execute two men simply for being gay. It is important to The Narrative that anybody who criticizes anything an alphabet person does is cruelly deranged.

That’s why CNN advertised its story using a headline that leaves the impression that it does:

Two men in Uganda are facing separate charges of “aggravated homosexuality,” an offense punishable by death under the country’s controversial new anti-gay laws https://t.co/vwNet7XDuJ

— CNN (@CNN) August 29, 2023

Now it is true that homosexuality is highly disdained in Uganda and its president is utterly intolerant of it. Certainly, his views are far less tolerant than mine, which lean more toward the libertarian (what happens in your bedroom stays in your bedroom, assuming it is with consenting adults).

It is also true that the Ugandan law that CNN describes as “controversial” is, indeed, controversial. The law makes homosexual acts punishable by imprisonment. But it is not this provision of the law that is being used against these men. They face the death penalty because they raped a child and a disabled man.

We can quibble about whether the death penalty is the appropriate punishment–I happen to think that executing rapists would make the world a better place, but I can easily see why people oppose the death penalty.

What is so infuriating about this story is how these two abhorrent cases are simply being used as a springboard for going into why this law is so awful. About 70% of the story has nothing to do with these cases–after all, how do you defend rapists?–and instead focuses on how Uganda is a nasty homophobic place.

Now you couldn’t pay me to go to Uganda, and I would strongly urge any gays or lesbians to avoid going there or at the very least engaging in sexual relations there–but it speaks volumes that CNN is trying to gin up outrage in favor of men who forced nonconsensual sex on others.

By leaving the basic facts out of the headline they imply they are facing death for having consensual sex with each other.

@cnn @cnnbrk #CNNNews

This title is so poorly worded it twists the facts.

“Two Uganda men… aggravated homosexuality, punishable by death.”

That might believe these two had a relationship.

They are violent offenders. One raping a disabled man. The other, raped a minor. https://t.co/P2XEIzHK7M

— Rick (@RicksterABCD) August 30, 2023

Given that the vast majority of people made aware of this story will only see the headline–and then the pundits spinning it for their own purposes–you can easily see how little CNN cares about giving you a basic sense of reality.

We would never have heard a peep about this story if these men had raped women or a little girl, and certainly wouldn’t be led to believe that the perpetrators were the real victims. And why would they? I would assume that in all the world there are millions of criminal cases we never hear about. Thousands in Uganda, I would imagine.

We only hear about such things if it moves the narrative forward.

If Uganda starts prosecuting men for having consensual sex with each other, that would be news because prosecuting men for homosexuality is a live issue, and Uganda has gotten a lot of grief and even sanctions over the passage of this law. It would be an escalation in an international relations issue. The World Bank has shut down loans to Uganda in protest of the law, after all.

But prosecuting rapists for raping? If it is news at all–and we never hear about other rape prosecutions in Uganda so it isn’t–it would be good news. These men, if guilty, deserve what they get.