Federal Appeals Court Says Lawsuit Against Hate Group Leader Scott Lively Can Proceed
A federal appeals court has聽 pastor Scott Lively鈥檚 petition to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges he聽violated U.S. law by trying to influence the laws of a foreign country.
The 1st Circuit Court of Appeals in Boston ruled last Thursday against Lively, s. The lawsuit charges Lively, who is also the聽author of the discredited Holocaust revisionist book ,听飞颈迟丑 in Uganda.
With this ruling, the lawsuit will now proceed in federal court.
Filed in 2012 by the U.S. based Center for Constitutional Rights and Sexual Minorities Uganda, a non-profit LGBT advocacy group based in Uganda, the alleges that 鈥淟ively鈥檚 involvement in anti-gay efforts in Uganda, including his active participation in the conspiracy to strip away fundamental rights from LGBTI persons, constitutes persecution.鈥� Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that Lively encouraged government-backed acts of violence against LGBT people through his anti-LGBT rhetoric, particularly remarks he made when addressing members of the Ugandan parliament in 2009.
Lively, 56, has stirred up anti-LGBT sentiment around the world, first traveling to Uganda in 2002. Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, alleged in that the anti-LGBT bill first proposed in Uganda in 2009 鈥渋s essentially [Lively鈥檚] creation.鈥� Anglican priest and Political Research Associates senior religion & sexuality researcher Kapya Kaoma noted that 鈥淭hese people had never heard of anything called the gay agenda, but Lively told them that these predators were coming for their children. As Africans hearing it for the first time, they believed it was true鈥攁nd they were burning with rage.鈥�
The 2009 Ugandan included life imprisonment in some circumstances and the death penalty for certain acts of 鈥渁ggravated homosexuality.鈥�
President Yoweri Museveni into law earlier this year that calls for life imprisonment as the maximum penalty for 鈥渁ggravated homosexuality,鈥� which is defined as repeated sexual acts between consenting adults of the same sex, same-sex acts involving a minor, a disabled person or a person infected with HIV. But in August, Uganda鈥檚 Constitutional Court , ruling that the bill was passed by members of parliament without the requisite quorum and was therefore illegal.
Some MPs have reignited the battle to pass the bill, with as a 鈥淐hristmas gift for the people of Uganda.鈥�
This is the first known Alien Tort Statute case that seeks accountability for persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.
