While the future of the “kill the gays” bill is still up in the air in Uganda, American preacher Scott Lively is being sued by a a Ugandan LGBT group for crimes against humanity in a Massachusetts federal court.
Qweerty.com reports:
Abiding Truth Ministries founder Scott Lively sparked international outrage when he worked with anti-gay forces in Uganda to foster legislation that would impose the death penalty for homosexual
activity. While the future of that bill is still up in the air, a Ugandan LGBT group is suing Lively for crimes against humanity in Massachusetts federal court.
Scheduled to begin Monday at 11am, the caseis believed to be the first use of the Alien Tort Statute—which gives American courts the right to hear human-rights cases brought by foreign citizens for conduct committed outside the US—involving sexual orientation.
The New York Times reported on the suit in March, 2012:
The lawsuit maintains that beginning in 2002, Mr. Lively conspired with religious and political leaders in Uganda to whip up anti-gay hysteria with warnings that gay people would sodomize African children and corrupt their culture.
The Ugandan legislature considered a bill in 2009, proposed by one of Mr. Lively’s Ugandan contacts, that would have imposed the death sentence for the “offense of homosexuality.” That bill languished after an outcry from the United States and European nations that are among major aid donors to Uganda, but was reintroduced last month.
Mr. Lively is being sued by the organization Sexual Minorities Uganda under the alien tort statute, which allows foreigners to sue in American courts in situations asserting the violation of international law. The suit says that Mr. Lively’s actions resulted in the persecution, arrest, torture and murder of gay men and lesbians in Uganda.