{"id":3147,"date":"2012-03-15T04:24:17","date_gmt":"2012-03-15T04:24:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/?p=3147"},"modified":"2012-03-15T04:24:17","modified_gmt":"2012-03-15T04:24:17","slug":"ugandan-lgbt-activists-sue-american-evangelist-for-inspiring-kill-the-gays-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/?p=3147","title":{"rendered":"Ugandan LGBT Activists Sue American Evangelist for Inspiring “Kill the Gays” Bill"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>On March 14th, the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR)<\/a> filed a federal lawsuit against Abiding Truth Ministries President, Scott Lively<\/a>, on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a non-profit umbrella organization for LGBT advocacy groups in Uganda.<\/p>\n

The suit alleges that Lively\u2019s involvement in anti-gay efforts in Uganda, including his active participation in the formulation of anti-gay legislation and policies aimed at revoking fundamental right from LGBT persons constitutes persecution.<\/p>\n

Uganda\u2019s parliament has a pending bill, commonly known as the \u201cKill the Gays Bill,\u201d that initially demanded the death penalty for \u201chomosexuality,\u201d prison for failing to turn in someone suspected of being \u201chomosexual,\u201d and criminalizes advocacy around LGBT rights. The bill has since been revamped to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment as a maximum sentence.<\/p>\n

According to the Guardian<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Lively []\u00a0is one of\u00a0three American pastors who visited Uganda in 2009<\/a>\u00a0and whom gay activists accuse of helping draft the original version of its anti-homosexuality bill.<\/p>\n

The official complaint claims Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a “genocidal” and “paedophilic” gay movement, which he “likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers”. It seeks a judgment that Lively’s actions violate international law and human rights.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In a YouTube video from 2009, you can\u00a0see Lively speaking against homosexuality to a group of Ugandans<\/a>. However, he denies his direct involvement with the bill<\/a>, and has described the legal action being taken against him as “absurd and frivolous.”\u00a0He said in an email to AP that he has never advocated violence against gay people. He said he has preached against homosexuality but advised therapy, not punishment. \u00a0But,\u00a0Ugandan LGBT activists aren’t buying it.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Said Frank Mugisha, executive director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, \u201cU.S evangelical leaders like Scott Lively have actively and intensively worked to eradicate any trace of LGBT advocacy and identity. Particularly damaging has been his claim that children are at risk because of our existence. His influence has been incredibly harmful and destructive for LGBT Ugandans fighting for their rights. We have to stop people like Scott Lively from helping to codify and give legal cover to hatred.\u201d<\/p>\n

In March 2009, Lively, along with two other U.S. Evangelical leaders, headlined a three-day conference intended to expose the \u201cgay movement\u201d as an \u201cevil institution\u201d and a danger to children. Lively likened the effects of his advocacy to a \u201cnuclear bomb\u201d in Uganda and stated that he hopes it is replicated elsewhere. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill emerged one month later with provisions that reflected Lively\u2019s input<\/p>\n

Lively has spoken on the topic of homosexuality in almost 40 countries, and\u00a0worked with religious and political leaders to that end.\u00a0In this “Letter to the Russians,”<\/a> Lively advises that \u201cthe easiest way to discourage \u2018gay pride\u2019 parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal.\u201d An anti-gay bill that prevents speech and advocacy around LGBT rights was passed and signed into law last week in St. Petersburg, Russia<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sexual Minorities Uganda v. Lively was filed under the Alien Tort Statute (ATS), which allows for foreign victims of human rights abuses to seek civil remedies in U.S. courts. The lawsuit was filed in Springfield, Massachusetts, where Lively currently lives and continues his work. Upon the filing, a coalition of rights groups from Springfield marched from the federal courthouse to Lively\u2019s coffee house, Holy Grounds, where they protested his anti-gay advocacy locally and around the world<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For more information visit CCR\u2019s case page<\/a>\u00a0and read the official complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG) is a non-profit non-governmental organization that works toward achieving full legal and social equality for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Uganda.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

The Center for Constitutional Rights is dedicated to advancing and protecting the rights guaranteed by the United States Constitution and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Center for Constitutional Rights has filed a federal lawsuit against Scott Lively, on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a LGBT advocacy group in Uganda. The suit alleges that Lively\u2019s involvement in anti-gay efforts in Uganda, including his active participation in the formulation of anti-gay legislation and policies aimed at revoking fundamental right from LGBT persons constitutes persecution.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,42],"tags":[141,329,502,578,624,898,1032],"class_list":["post-3147","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lgbt-africa","category-news-and-opinions","tag-africa","tag-david-kato","tag-homophobia","tag-kill-bill","tag-lgbt","tag-scott-lively","tag-uganda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3147"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3147\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3147"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3147"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/test.qwoc.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}