Lawsuit against Scott Lively, Springfield evangelist and gubernatorial candidate
Source: MassLive
SPRINGFIELD - A federal judge set deadlines in the crimes against humanity lawsuit filed by a human rights group against local evangelist Scott Lively, however no trial date has been set and the next pretrial conference is not scheduled until 2015.
U.S. District Court Judge Michael A. Ponsor set a deadline late last year for lawyers to exchange discovery but put off deadlines to file final motions and disclose information about witnesses until next year. The next pretrial hearing is set for May 6, 2015.
Lively was in 2012 sued by Sexual Minorities Uganda. He is accused of fanning anti-gay flames in the East African country during an address to parliament members in 2009. The complaint alleges Lively encouraged government-backed acts of violence against gays as a result of his rhetoric.
Lively has denied this, and has contended chiefly that his First Amendment rights protect free speech. The founder of "Abiding Truth Ministries," Lively is a Springfield resident, lawyer and author who late last year announced a run for governor.
Read more: http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2014/01/no_trial_date_set_in_scott_liv.html#incart_river_default
Full title would not fit: Lawsuit against Scott Lively, Springfield evangelist and gubernatorial candidate, claiming crimes against humanity, has no trial date yet
alfredo
(60,075 posts)live with the consequences of those words. Charlie Manson didn't kill Sharon Tate, but he did inspire others to do the deed.
theHandpuppet
(19,964 posts)The same principle should be used against Lively.
johnfunk
(6,113 posts)That has a nice ring to it...
BobTheSubgenius
(11,564 posts)Not only is he part of the seemingly inexhaustible supply of bigots that don't understand the 1st Amendment, but he seems to have the idea that it applies anywhere on the planet he happens to be.
okaawhatever
(9,462 posts)laws. He testified before a small group
Scott Lively, the virulently anti-LGBT activist currently being sued for human rights violations regarding his role in the notorious anti-gay bill in Uganda, is in Russia this week participating in a planning committee meeting of the World Congress of Families (WCF), which was held October 15-17 in Moscow.
SNIP
This isnt the first time Lively has gone to Russia. He did an extensive tour beginning in the fall of 2006, in which he claims he met with religious officials and scholars. In a recent interview, Lively took some credit for Russias passage of a bill that bans homosexual propaganda. Since the passage of the bill, violence against LGBT people in the country appears to have increased. In a September interview with the viciously anti-LGBT Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association, Lively claimed that the passage of the Russian law was one of the proudest achievements of my career.
Lively blogged his latest travels Oct. 18 on his site, and also stated that he met with and did a television show with Russian Orthodox archpriest Dmitri Smirnov, who Lively referred to as head of the Patriarchs Commission on the Family. The Patriarch, in Orthodox tradition, is equivalent to the Pope. The current Patriarch, Kirill I of Moscow, recently declared gay marriage a dangerous apocalyptic symptom.
Lively contended that Smirnov is very receptive to his latest plan, which hes calling The Rainbow Belongs to God Strategy. Lively wants Russia to reclaim the rainbow for God by flying a rainbow flag over the 2014 Olympics in Sochi and allow rainbows to appear everywhere at the Games, thus somehow blunting their use as a symbol of LGBT pride and unity. With a simple judo move, Lively says, the Russians could catch the gays in their own trap, and at the same time rescue Gods rainbow from being dragged in the mud.
Lively developed his plan in response to a report by fellow anti-LGBT activist Brian Camenker, head of the anti-gay group Mass Resistance. Camenker claims he infiltrated the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association conference, held in Boston in August, and uncovered a plot in which LGBT people and allies will smuggle rainbow flags into the 2014 Olympics in Sochi to wave in defiance of Russias ban on gay propaganda. Lively wants Russia to thwart this evil plan by reclaiming the rainbow as a symbol of God.
Continuing on his blog, Lively claims that Smirnov offered to help him find a Russian publisher for his discredited book The Pink Swastika, an anti-LGBT Holocaust revisionist piece that claims the Nazi Party was full of gay men who ultimately orchestrated the Holocaust. Lively plans to donate half of the earnings from sales of his book in Russia to the pro-family movement in that country
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/?s=scott+lively&submit=
This link is to the splc blog where I did a search for all Scott Lively stories.
The excerpt is from the first story listed on the search page (it's the most recent story) Here is the link for the story:
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2013/10/18/anti-lgbt-activist-scott-lively-returns-to-russia/#more-12618
Oddly, I understand how Lively could be upset with people who subvert common American symbols/words for a different purpose. While I don't think gay people have done that with the rainbow flag, I do think the tea party and their ilk have forever tarnished the words, "Liberty, patriot, freedom and Constitution"