Skip to main contentScott Lively, the former leader of the now-defunct anti-gay group Oregon Citizens Alliance, will stand trial for crimes against humanity.
Lively was sued last year in federal court in Massachusetts, accusing him of violating
international law by helping craft legislation in Uganda that later became known as "Kill the Gays," by making homosexuality punishable by death.
A trial court judge has now said—for the first time, Buzzfeed says—that persecuting someone based on their sexual orientation is a crime against humanity.
Locally, Lively and the OCA pushed 1992's Measure 9, which would have changed the state constitution to declare homosexuality as perverse and required schools to teach it was equal to pedophilia. Lively is also infamous for physically throwing a female photographer out of an OCA meeting; a jury later found he used unreasonable force against her.
With federal Judge Michael Ponsor's ruling, the case against Lively will now proceed.
The lawsuit alleges that Lively had been conspiring with Ugandan leaders since 2002 to create anti-gay views, that, once again, equated homosexuality with pedophilia. WW spoke with a Ugandian gay rights supporter about the measure in 2010.
And, also from WW archives, Lively also tried to court Russian immigrants in Oregon in 2007 when he tried to revive the OCA. Thankfully, it didn't work.
WWeek 2015