Here Are The Countries Where It's Illegal To Be Gay

While U.S. states are struggling with the issue of whether or not to allow gay marriage, some countries are more or less banning homosexuality outright.

The president of Uganda just signed a law that allows the government to throw people in jail for life for having gay sex. "Aggravated homosexuality" - having sex with a minor or while HIV-positive - could earn people a life sentence in the small African country.

Reuters has published a map that shows same-sex laws around the world, and the geographical divide between is striking. Some countries can even impose the death penalty for homosexual acts.

Take a look:

Unsurprisingly, the West is mostly accepting of homosexuality, while much of Africa and the Middle East has laws against it.

And in India, homosexuality was recently re-criminalized, and the government and gay rights activists are still fighting to get the law scrapped again. Although people aren't prosecuted for consensual sex in India, police often use the law to harass homosexuals, according to BBC.

In other countries that have anti-gay laws on the books, people are actually prosecuted for consensual acts. Three men were executed in Iran in 2011 after being found guilty on charges related to homosexuality, according to The Guardian.

The Washington Post has a good breakdown of the specific laws in the countries where homosexuality can be punished by death.