New ATS Suit by Ugandan activist against American Anti-Gay preacher

From ABC News:

A new development today on a story “Nightline” first covered back in 2010, when we traveled to Uganda to investigate a pending law in a far-away land that had ignited a firestorm of criticism here in the United States.

Dubbed the “Kill the Gays” bill by opponents here, the legislation would have imposed severe punishment — up to and including the death by hanging — for Ugandans found guilty “aggravated homosexuality”. The bill also called for seven years in prison for “attempt to commit homosexuality,” five years for landlords who knowingly house gays, three years for anyone, including parents, who fail to hand gay children over to the police within 24 hours and the extradition of gay Ugandans living abroad.

International outrage lead to the demise of the bill until last month, when David Bahati, the Ugandan legislator who first wrote the law, reintroduced it. So with the bill back on the table, a civil liberties group is making an interesting play to stop it. The Center for Constitutional Rights filed suit today against Scott Lively, a pastor from Springfield, Mass., who went to Uganda and visited with policymakers there in the months before the bill was first introduced.

More from ABA Journal:

The suit claims Lively’s call to fight an “evil” and “pedophilic” gay movement “ignited a cultural panic and atmosphere of terror.” The complaint cites a bill introduced in the legislature that would impose the death penalty after a second conviction for having consensual gay sex.

On World Net Daily, Lively responds:

“I am an American citizen [being targeted] over the persecution of homosexuals as they define it as a crime against humanity – for speaking the truth of the Bible in a foreign country,” Scott Lively, of Abiding Truth Ministries, told WND today after he found out about the legal action.

He said the definition of “crime against humanity” comes from European progressives, and the accusations appear to be based on his speeches and writings about the Bible’s perspective on homosexuality.

The complaint is available here.