Thu 15 Mar 2012 In: International News View at Wayback View at NDHA
Scott Lively A Ugandan gay rights group is suing an American pastor who it’s accusing of running an anti-gay campaign in the African nation. The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) has filed a federal lawsuit against Abiding Truth Ministries President Scott Lively on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda, a non-profit umbrella organization for LGBT advocacy groups in Uganda. The suit alleges that Lively’s 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. This is the first known Alien Tort Statute (ATS) case seeking accountability for persecution on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity. Uganda’s parliament has a pending bill, commonly known as the “Kill the Gays Bill,” that provides the death penalty for “homosexuality,” prison for failing to turn in someone suspected of being “homosexual,” and criminalizes advocacy around lgbt rights. “Lively has been the man with the plan in this enterprise,” said Pam Spees, senior staff attorney at the Center for Constitutional Rights. “He long ago set out a very specific and detailed methodology for stripping away the most basic human rights protections, to silence and ultimately disappear lgbtpeople. Unfortunately, he found willing accomplices and fertile ground in Uganda.” Executive Director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, Frank Mugisha, says US evangelical leaders like 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.” The Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill, first introduced to the Ugandan Parliament in 2009 and reintroduced in February 2012, enumerates degrees of ‘homosexuality’ and punishments ranging from imprisonment to the death penalty. The complaint filed today includes evidence of Lively’s participation in laying the groundwork for broad-based attacks on the lgbt community including portions of the bill intended to criminalize advocacy around lgbt rights as well as deprive gay activists of the right of freedom of assembly, the right of association and the right to be free from discrimination. The bill’s sponsor, David Bahati, is a Ugandan politician and member of The Family, which the CCR says is a powerful and secretive US-based evangelical and political organisation known in the US for organising an annual National Prayer Breakfast in Washington. CCR says Lively has been working with anti-gay forces in Uganda since 2002. It says in March 2009, Lively, along with two other US Evangelical leaders, headlined a three-day conference intended to expose the “gay movement” as an “evil institution” and a danger to children. Lively likened the effects of his advocacy to a “nuclear bomb” in Uganda and stated that he hopes it is replicated elsewhere. The Anti-Homosexuality Bill emerged one month later with provisions that reflected Lively’s input. As in Uganda, Lively aims to criminalize lgbt advocacy elsewhere and has worked with religious and political leaders in Russia, Moldova and Latvia to that end. He states he has spoken on the topic of homosexuality in almost 40 countries and advises that “the easiest way to discourage ‘gay pride’ parades and other homosexual advocacy is to make such activity illegal.” An anti-gay bill that prevents speech and advocacy around lgbt rights was passed and signed into law last week in St. Petersburg, Russia, and went into effect on Sunday. For more information visit CCR’s case page
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 15th March 2012 - 3:30pm