Gallery | 'It's a Fabulous Life' plays through Sunday at Broward Center for the Performing Arts

It's a Fabulous Life, a musical by David Sexton and Albert Evans (with additional music by Eric Alsford, Andrew Sargent and Wesley Pennington), runs through Sunday at Broward Center for the Performing Arts.

The show, set in Miami Beach and directed by Daniel Bonnett, stars Vance Vlasek as Joe, a young playwright/actor who gets his wish never to have been born gay.

Also in the cast: Benjamin-Michael Antipuna, Lisa Kerstin Braun, Elijah Davis, Matthew Korinko, Antero Blanco, Daisy Deadpetals, Tommy Paduano, Kley Tarcitano, David Tracy and Jay Rogers.

Click here for more information or to buy tickets ($35).

Click here to view a gallery from Thursday night's performance. Photos by STEVE ROTHAUS / Miami Herald Staff.

Uganda's anti-gay bill won't contain death penalty, says lawmaker who authored legislation

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BY RODNEY MUHUMUZA, ASSOCIATED PRESS

KAMPALA, Uganda -- The Ugandan lawmaker who originally authored an anti-gay bill proposing death for some homosexual acts said Friday that a new version of the proposed legislation doesn't contain the death penalty.

Parliamentarian David Bahati said the bill, which is expected to be voted on next month, had "moved away from the death penalty after considering all the issues that have been raised."

"There is no death penalty," he told The Associated Press.

Bahati said the bill now focuses on protecting children from gay pornography, banning gay marriage, counseling gays, as well as punishing those who promote gay culture. Jail terms are prescribed for various offenses, he said, offering no details. The most recent version of the bill hasn't been publicly released.

In 2009, when Bahati first introduced the bill, he charged that homosexuals threatened family values in Uganda and that gays from the West were recruiting poor Ugandan children into gay lifestyles with promises of money and a better life. He said a tough new law was needed because a colonial-era law against sodomy was not strong enough.

The bill, popular among many in Uganda but condemned abroad, has been under scrutiny by a committee whose members now say they are ready to put it forward for a vote. One of the members, Krispus Ayena, said Friday that some parliamentarians spoke strongly against certain provisions in the bill as well as the death penalty itself.

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College student: I killed mother's boss, went on shopping spree after he made sexual advances

BY ANNA EDGERTON, AEDGERTON@MIAMIHERALD.COM

James Arauz, the Miami Dade College student who stabbed his mother’s employer to death, testified Thursday in the first day of a hearing to determine whether he would be granted Stand Your Ground immunity.

Arauz, who was 20 at the time, stabbed Vincent Pravata to death and went on a shopping spree with his credit cards in Oct. 2009. Investigators later found bloody fingerprints on a glass that led them to Arauz, who confessed to the murder and claimed self-defense.

The defendant’s mother worked as a housekeeper for Pravata for eight years and Arauz helped do yardwork for four months.

After Arauz’s father died from a heart attack in 2008, the 63-year-old Pravata offered to act as a mentor.

Arauz, an engineering student, testified that Pravata, who was openly gay, occasionally made comments about Arauz’s “beautiful eyes” and asked if he’d ever thought about gay sex.

The defendant’s mother said Pravata was unusually excited when Arauz broke up with his girlfriend less than a month before the stabbing.

From the witness stand Thursday, Arauz said he went to Pravata’s South Miami home to pick up the letter of recommendation he had requested for an internship application.

He said Pravata demanded sexual favors in exchange for the letter.

When Arauz rejected Pravata’s advances and tried to leave, he said the older man “went into a rage and tried to pin me against a wall”

After a chase and physical resistance, Arauz grabbed a decorative knife off a filing cabinet and stabbed Pravata 18 times when he tried to prevent him from opening a metal gate outside the house.

“I had already tried flight and it didn’t work, so I was trying to fight,” Arauz said, describing the desperate struggle for the knife. “It was the survival instinct.”

As Arauz was moving the body back into the house, he saw the victim’s wallet in his pocket and took his credit cards and $480 cash.

Arauz was also facing an outstanding shoplifting charge at the time. He was charged with second degree murder and credit card theft.

Judge Yvonne Colodny will hear further testimony on Friday and decide whether to grant the motion for immunity. If she decides that the defense has not provided enough evidence for Stand Your Ground, the case will go to trial before a jury.