January 7, 2013
Anti-Gay Preacher to Ask Judge to Dismiss Lawsuit
Jason St. Amand READ TIME: 1 MIN.
Lawyers for a Massachusetts evangelist are headed to court to ask a federal judge to dismiss a lawsuit that alleges his actions in anti-gay efforts in Uganda constitute persecution.
The Center for Constitutional Rights filed the lawsuit last year against Scott Lively of the Redemption Gate Mission Society in Springfield for what the group says has been a decade-long campaign to persecute gays in Uganda.
Lively's lawyers argue that the First Amendment gives him the right to free speech even when he is in Uganda.
Lively was among U.S. evangelicals who visited Uganda in 2009. He has said he has never advocated violence against gays, but has recommended therapy.
U.S. District Judge Michael Ponsor is scheduled to hear arguments Monday on Lively's motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
