After traveling from Uganda to the United States last week, 12 LGBTI rights activists have presented their case to a federal judge in Springfield, western New England, that anti-gay Pastor Scott Douglas Lively should go on trial for human rights violations.
According to the gay rights activists, Lively (58), a U.S.-based anti-gay advocate, played an unparalleled role in fostering the climate of hate that gave rise to Uganda’s now-defunct Anti-Homosexuality Act.
“Lively worked to erase LGBTI Ugandans from civil and political life,” says Rutgers University law professor Jeena Shah, one of the activists’ lawyers pursuing the case.
Sexual Minorities Uganda (SMUG), a coalition of gay rights organizations, represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) and co-counsel, appeared in court to argue that a federal lawsuit against Abiding Truth Ministries President Scott Lively must go to trial.
“Over the last several weeks, CCR has received 634 messages of support and solidarity with our clients from Sexual Minorities Uganda. As we head into court in Springfield this morning with SMUG, we are hand delivering all 634 to them,” said the Center for Constitutional Rights last Wednesday .
Frank Mugisha, director of Sexual Minorities Uganda, who was one of the LGBTI activists arrested in August during a violent police raid of a Pride event says, “The bill is essentially his creation.”
“We have overwhelming evidence in this case that the persecution of the LGBTI community is rampant in Uganda and Scott Lively worked closely with other anti-gay leaders in our country to deprive us of our fundamental human rights,” Frank Mugisha further urges.
“We hope the judge will rule in our favor and allow our case to go to trial so we can bring Scott Lively to justice for what he has done to our community.”
Lively first came to Uganda in 2002. The gay rights activists allege that he cultivated ties to influential politicians and religious leaders at the forefront of the nation’s anti-gay crusade.
“Just before the first draft of Uganda’s anti-gay bill began circulating in April 2009, Lively traveled to Kampala and gave lengthy presentations to members of Uganda’s parliament and cabinet, which laid out the argument that the nation’s president and lawmakers would later use to justify Uganda’s draconian anti-gay crackdown.”
The 12 have also been joined by one activist from Latvia, who says that Lively also worked to deprive the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) community of their fundamental rights.
According to Erasing 76 Crimes, a news site by gay activist Colin Stewart based in California, In August, SMUG submitted an extensive filing with more than 200 exhibits of evidence documenting the widespread and systematic persecution of LGBTI people in Uganda and the key role that Scott Lively played alongside Ugandan actors in bringing it about.
It has not yet been confirmed why the 12 continue urging that the Pastor must go to trial now, seeing that the law was repealed years back.
“SMUG and the LGBTI community have stood tall in the face of such targeted oppression and degradation, and they deserve their day in court.” said CCR Senior Staff Attorney Pam Spees.
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