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The BBC has beenn accused of stimulating a debate about whether to kill gay Britons, as MPs condemned a Ugandan bill which would make homosexuality punishable by death.
In December the BBC posted a discussion forum with the title "should homosexuals face execution" in response to a bill before the Ugandan parliament that if made law would have made some homosexual acts punishable by death.
Falkirk MP Eric Joyce today repeated his previous accusations that the decision by the BBC website to frame the debate in such a way with such a "completely insane question" gave an unnecessary platform to homophobic views in Britain, as not a single Ugandan contributed to the forum.
He said all it did was to "stimulate a debate about whether to kill homosexuals in the UK".
Speaking during a Commons debate this afternoon to mark the death of Ugandan gay rights activist David Kato, Joyce said the question "lent international legitimacy to the many people in Uganda and elsewhere who think the answer to the question is 'yes'."
One reader posted on the site: "Bravo to the Ugandans for this wise decision, a bright step in eliminating this menace from your society. We hope other African nations will also follow your bold step."
The BBC defended the headline and argued that while it was a "stark and challenging question" it accurately focused on and illustrated the "real issue at stake".
Homosexual acts are currently illegal in Uganda.
Ugandan MP David Bahati is promoting a private members bill that would expand the scope of the anti-gay laws including introducing the death penalty for some acts.
The African country's Rolling Stone newspaper (not connected to the American magazine of the same name) recently published the photos of people it said were gay, including Kato, under the headline "Hang them".
The human rights activist was beaten to death with an iron bar in January.
Condemning Kato's murder, Joyce said Britain should stand up for "universal values" and said it was not "forcing some imperialist hegemony" on Uganda for the West to tell countries not to execute gay people.
Foreign Office minister Henry Bellingham condemned the murder as particularly "vile, vicious and unpleasant" and said his death represented a backwards step for human rights in Uganda.
"His killing saw the loss of one of Uganda's foremost human rights activists," he said.
He added: "I believe it's vital that the Ugandan police force thoroughly investigate his death".
Bellingham said the British government had made it clear to Uganda that it would not deviate from its support for the human rights of the Ugandan people.
"This government will continue to support the rights of LGBT people in Uganda as we do elsewhere," he said.
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