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1 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS SPRINGFIELD DIVISION SEXUAL MINORITIES UGANDA

Plaintiff

,

v. SCOTT LIVELY, individually and as President of Abiding Truth Ministries

Defendant

. _________________________________________ Civil Action 3:12-CV-30051 (MAP) FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT PURSUANT TO FED. R. CIV. P. 15(a)(1)(B) FOR CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY OF PERSECUTION DEMAND FOR JURY TRIAL

INTRODUCTION

1.

This case is brought by SEXUAL MINORITIES UGANDA , an umbrella organization located in Kampala, Uganda, which represents the interests of its constituent member organizations in advocating for the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people (“LGBTI”) in Uganda. It is brought against defendant Scott LIVELY, a U.S.-based attorney, author, evangelical minister and self-described world-leading expert on the “gay movement,” for the decade-long campaign he has waged, in agreement and coordination with his Ugandan counterparts, to persecute persons on the basis of their gender and/or sexual orientation and gender identity. 2.

The case is brought under the Alien Tort Statute (“ATS”), 28 U.S.C. §1350, which provides federal jurisdiction for “any civil action by an alien, for a tort only, committed in violation of the law of nations or a treaty of the United States.” The

Case 3:12-cv-30051-MAP Document 27 Filed 07/13/12 Page 1 of 61

2 United States Supreme Court has affirmed the use of the ATS as a remedy for serious violations of international law norms that are widely accepted and clearly defined.

Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain,

542 U.S. 692 (2004). 3.

Persecution, as a crime against humanity that is universally proscribed and clearly defined in international law, is such a violation. Persecution is defined in international law as the “intentional and severe deprivation of fundamental rights contrary to international law by reason of the identity of the group or collectivity.”

Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,

Art. 7(2)(G). The prohibition on persecution protects individuals on the basis of their identity and punishes those who act in concert to deprive the rights of others on the basis of that identity.

1

Persecution, by definition, is a group crime; it cannot be committed by one person acting alone. 4.

Plaintiff also asserts tort claims which are cognizable under Massachusetts state law. 5.

In very large part due to defendant LIVELY’s contributions to the conspiracy to persecute LGBTI persons in Uganda, plaintiff SEXUAL MINORITIES UGANDA, as an entity, as well as its individual staff-members and member organizations, have suffered severe deprivations of fundamental rights. Their very existence has been criminalized and their physical safety threatened through a coordinated campaign, which LIVELY has largely initiated, instigated and directed, to strip way basic fundamental rights from people on the basis of their sexual orientation and gender identity and those who advocate on their behalf. To aid in doing so, LIVELY

1

Although Plaintiff’s claims are directly cognizable under the ATS, the claims find strong domestic-law parallel in the Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871, 42 U.S.C. § 1985(3), which punishes private conspiracies to deprive citizens of the equal protection of the law or of certain privileges and immunities, such as freedom of expression or association, if it is motivated by a group-based animus.


3 frequently attributes to the “genocidal” “gay movement” an irrepressible predilection to commit rape and child sexual abuse. 6.

As set out in more detail below, SEXUAL MINORITIES UGANDA and the community they represent have endured severe discrimination in virtually every meaningful aspect of their civil and political lives; their association has been criminalized; their advocacy on issues central to their health and political participation has been suppressed and punished; and they have been subjected to cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. Plaintiff's meetings and trainings have been raided and disbanded and its staff members have been arrested, subjected to humiliating and degrading treatment. Sexual Minorities Uganda has had to devote substantial resources and time in dealing with precarious and emergent situations in response to crises of individual LGBTI persons in the community who have been threatened, assaulted, harassed, falsely arrested and/or made homeless because of their real or perceived status as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trangender or intersex. Many individual members of SMUG and its constituent organizations live in persistent fear of harassment, arbitrary arrest and physical harm, even death. 7.

According to LIVELY’S own admissions, his influence and work in Uganda date back at least a decade when he visited Uganda twice in 2002 to coordinate with his Ugandan counterparts, Stephen LANGA, a prominent and extremist anti-gay community leader and pastor, and Martin SSEMPA, also an anti-gay extremist activist and minister, to implement his strategies to dehumanize, demonize, silence, and further criminalize the LGBTI community. While their efforts were largely effective between 2002 and 2009, LIVELY’s work took on a whole new level of urgency after a December
