Judge: Uganda gay rights suit can continue

[Sykes]

Judge: Uganda gay rights suit can continue - ABC6 - Providence, RI and New Bedford, MA News, Weather

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (AP) - A federal judge won't dismiss a Ugandan gay rights group's lawsuit against a Massachusetts evangelical minister.

Sexual Minorities Uganda's claim alleged Scott Lively conspired to persecute gays in the East African country.

The plaintiff called Wednesday's ruling by U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor a significant victory for human rights.

Oh, sure. It's all fun and games until someone loses their life because they're gay in Uganda.

I hope they throw the book at him.

 

[ecofarm]

I despise homophobes as much as anyone, but the guy was at a government conference at their invitation. He said horribly ignorant things about homosexuals at the conference, but I don't see any evidence of him inciting violence or approving of punishment. The bill (a digusting piece of legislation), introduced soon after the conference by a member of parliament, has been dead in parliament for a couple years and does not appear to be going anywhere.

Should we really prosecute people for spewing ignorant hatred at foreign government conferences to which they were invited? He doesn't appear to have said anything different than most evangelical zealots say during missions around the world. The basis of the charge seems to be that he met with the government at an official conference. Tons of missionaries meet with the government and say the same thing... can we prosecute them all? No, that's impossible. Should we try to prosecute every zealot that meets with a foreign government?


Details available at:

Uganda Anti-Homosexuality Bill - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

From 5 to 8 March 2009, a workshop took place in Kampala, the capital of Uganda, that featured three American evangelical Christians: Scott Lively, an author who has written several books opposing homosexuality; Caleb Lee Brundidge, a self-professed former gay man who conducts sessions to heal homosexuality; and Don Schmierer, a board member of Exodus International, an organisation devoted to promoting "freedom from homosexuality through the power of Jesus Christ".[SUP][15][/SUP]

Are the other two being prosecuted?

 

[brothern]

Lively: Evangelical Christian activist who runs a group called the Abiding Truth Ministries. Wrote a book that declared homosexuals were the true inventors and primary driving force behind Nazism, and claims the top Nazi leaders (including Hitler) as well as 8 out of the 10 worse serial killers in American were gay. Went to Uganda to preach that the "gay agenda" causes an epidemic of divorce, child abuse, HIV/AIDs; that's there's no preventing gays from molesting children and that the Rwandan genocide was caused by homosexuals.

His website claims "defending the Natural Family, Marriage and Family Values."

I hope the Uganda LGBT community wins and this guy rots in prison.

 

[brothern]

Should we really prosecute people for spewing ignorant hatred at foreign government conferences to which they were invited? He doesn't appear to have said anything different than most evangelical zealots say during missions around the world. The basis of the charge seems to be that he met with the government at an official conference. Tons of missionaries meet with the government and say the same thing... can we prosecute them all? No, that's impossible. Should we try to prosecute every zealot that meets with a foreign government?

We're not prosecuting him. An Ugandan gay rights group is. People who were directly affected by his lobbying.

 

[ecofarm]

We're not prosecuting him. An Ugandan gay rights group is. People who were directly affected by his lobbying.

I see. Thanks for the clarification.

Still, the questions stand (even in proper context). Just change "prosecute" to "sue".

Why aren't they going after the other two? Are they not in the US?

Should we be able to sue any minister that says such things to the Ugandan government?