A group of Ugandan LGBT activists filed suit in federal court in Massachusetts against activist/writer/evangelist preacher Scott Lively, the founder of the Springfield-based Abiding Truth Ministries, according to a MassEquality press release.
The group, Sexual Minorities Uganda, is accusing Lively of violating international law by inciting the persecution of LGBT people in Uganda. It is suing Lively under the alien tort statute, which allows foreigners to sue in U.S. courts when international law is involved.
MassEquality Executive Director Kara Suffredini said, “Scott Lively can claim that he has not harmed anyone by speaking out against LGBT people in Uganda, but that does not make it true. In 2009, he traveled to Uganda and preached that gay people sodomize children. After Lively’s appearance, the Ugandan parliament proposed a bill imposing the death penality on gay Ugandans.
“To travel to Uganda and slander LGBT people is to incite grave violence against them. Lively’s words and actions are dramatically inconsistent with the values of the great Commonwealth in which he lives and a shameful disgrace to our country. He should be held accountable.”
Lively is also president of Abiding Truth Ministries, based in Springfield, Mass.