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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2013/08/scott_lively_can_he_be_punished_in_the_u_s_for_speech_against_gay_ugandans.htmlAn American brags that he's the father of the Ugandan anti-gay movement. Can he be prosecuted in the U.S.?
By Dahlia Lithwick|Posted Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2013, at 6:05 PM
Pastor Scott Lively, center, enters U.S. District Court in Springfield, Mass., on Jan. 7, 2013. Can he be punished in the United States for how his speech affects members of the LGBT community in Uganda?
Photo by John Suchocki/The Republican/masslive.com
Can an American court hold a U.S. citizen liable for the effects his speech has in a foreign country? We may soon find out. Last Wednesday a federal judge allowed a novel legal claim to proceed in his Massachusetts courtroom, setting up a groundbreaking suit pitting the free-speech rights of an anti-gay pastor and activist against the basic human rights of gay Ugandans.
If you havent heard of Scott Lively yet, you will. The pastor is hardly unique in his views about the evils of homosexuality, from repurposing the old canard that to be gay is to be a pedophile, to his original and truly deranged claim that it was homosexuals who caused the Holocaust. Livelys got a predictably loyal following of haters and snarlers. Its just that unlike his brethren who stop at preaching religious hatred on cable television and AM radio, Lively has taken his virulent hate speech on the road, consulting in many other countries, specifically Uganda and Russia, to persuade foreign governments to pass brutally repressive anti-gay legislation.
Indeed Lively played a key role at an anti-gay conference in 2009 that eventually led to the drafting of Ugandas so-called Kill the Gays bill, a bill thats been kicking around its Parliament ever since, that would impose the death penalty for the offense of homosexuality under certain circumstances. And Lively has also been involved in efforts to criminalize gay advocacy in various foreign countriesresulting in not just rising abuse and reprisals, but in a gutting of the very legal protections with which gay advocates might defend themselves.
Lively has openly bragged of his own role as the "father" of the anti-gay movement in Uganda, calling his campaign a nuclear bomb against the gay agenda in Uganda. The question is whether all this constitutes mere speech or something more.
more at link
trotsky
(49,533 posts)But of course since it's his religion, he is justified in rejecting any objective facts he wants in favor of "another way of knowing."
Because if he truly believes homosexuality is a sin, who can prove him wrong?
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)congregation of any kind. He is no ones Pastor. Slate should correct their misuse of that title.
cbayer
(146,218 posts)lend some legitimacy to his campaign of hate.
Bluenorthwest
(45,319 posts)nt
cbayer
(146,218 posts)Got his "theology degree" from an online "university" and I can't find any evidence that he has ever been ordained by anyone.
I also love that he is getting publicity at this point. Will be very interesting to follow.
Hope you are well, BNW.
SecularMotion
(7,981 posts)You've posted this before
http://www.democraticunderground.com/121890718
cbayer
(146,218 posts)okasha
(11,573 posts)Liberty Counsel is one of Jerry Falwell's spawn. I'm assuming this is a civil suit, given that it's being pursued under torts. I wish there were a way to nail the bastard for crimes against humanity.