Taylor Alison Swift is an American singer-songwriter. She is known for narrative songs about her personal life, which have received widespread media coverage. At age 14, Swift became the youngest artist signed by the Sony/ATV Music publishing house and, at 15, she signed her first record deal.
Her 2006 eponymous debut album was the longest-charting album of the 2000s in the US. Its third single, "Our Song", made her the youngest person to single-handedly write and perform a number-one song on the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart. Swift's second album, Fearless, was released in 2008.
Buoyed by the pop crossover success of the singles "Love Story" and "You Belong with Me", it became the US' best-selling album of 2009 and was certified diamond in the US. The album won four Grammy Awards, and Swift became the youngest Album of the Year winner.
Ugandan Law Criminalizes People Who Identify as LGBTQ and their Allies
metroweekly.comcracking down on homosexuality, essentially making it illegal to identify publicly as LGBTQ — or even express support for the LGBTQ community.The bill builds upon the country’s existing colonial-era laws criminalizing consensual same-sex activity, which is punishable by life imprisonment, targeting a host of free speech-related activities in order to discourage LGBTQ visibility in any form.Under the bill, individuals or institutions that support or fund LGBTQ-related groups or organizations, or publish or distribute pro-gay media or literature, can be prosecuted and imprisoned.Media groups, journalists, and publishers who similarly broadcast or distribute LGBTQ-related content that “promotes homosexuality” also face imprisonment, reports CNN.
Property owners can potentially be jailed if they allow their properties to be used as a “brothel,” which is so broadly defined that it can include any gathering space where people are planning or advocating on behalf of the LGBTQ community, or where same-sex sexual activity can potentially take place — regardless of whether such acts actually occur.Cisgender allies of the LGBTQ community can be prosecuted and imprisoned for advocating or expressing support for LGBTQ rights.Friends, family members, and neighbors can also be penalized for failing to inform on individuals they know are engaged in same-sex relationships or LGBTQ advocacy — effectively creating a de facto police state where individual beliefs or free speech rights are under surveillance.The law also imposes the death penalty for those found guilty of “aggravated homosexuality,” a term referring to people who engage in homosexual conduct with another person who cannot or does not consent, or commits such acts under.
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