28 percent of Republican delegates support ‘jail the gays’ candidate Scott Lively in Massachusetts
Scott Lively has claimed that God removed Donald Trump from office because he was too accepting of homosexuality.
‘Jail the gays’ candidate Scott Lively has succeeded in forcing his way into a Republican primary – after one in four Massachusetts Republican delegates gave him their vote.
Massachusetts preacher Scott Lively has links to anti-LGBT movements across the world, particularly in deprived countries. Human rights watchdogs allege his work is key to a wave of campaigns for anti-gay laws around the world.
Lively is reviled by LGBT activists for his work in pushing laws criminalising homosexuality, including Uganda’s now-defunct 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act, and cheered on anti-gay legislation in Russia.
He also penned a controversial book, The Pink Swastika, that blames gay people for the Holocaust.
The pastor, who is running Governor of Massachusetts as a primary challenger to incumbent Republican Governor Charlie Baker, this week won the vote of more than a quarter of delegates at the state GOP convention.
Lively picked up 626 votes (27.67 percent) from delegates at the convention.
While he trailed Baker’s 1,577 votes (69.7 percent), Lively far exceeded the 15 percent threshold needed to advance to a public primary.
Baker told the press: “There’s no place and no point in public life – in any life – for a lot of the things Scott Lively says and believes, OK?
“And that’s why I’m pleased that 7 out of 10 delegates in that convention chose us to represent them in the fall.”
Asked why a quarter of GOP delegates had backed a man who believes gay people should be thrown in jail, Baker declined to answer.
He said: “I can’t get in the minds of people who made decisions to support us or support anybody else. But I can tell you that Scott Lively — a lot of what he says, a lot of what he believes — doesn’t belong in public discourse.”
According to WAMC, Lively said the vote was a “statement of support for authentic conservative values in the Republican Party.”
Lively previously vowed to purge the “LGBT political movement” from government if elected.
Speaking to Left-Right Radio with Chuck Morse, Lively said: “I’ve consulted on human rights around the world, and I can tell you there is no human right based in sodomy.”
He said: “The two things that I would do in Massachusetts… number one is what I call the First Amendment supremacy clause, this is something I drafted that says that whenever there is a conflict between regulations based on sexual orientation and the First Amendment, the First Amendment has to prevail.
“You cannot have newly invented laws and policies superseding the most fundamental right of Americans.
“The second is what I call the separation of LGBT and state. To the extent that religion is restricted in government, so should the LGBT political movement because it is basically the counter to it.
“They’re opposite political forces and movements competing for influence in society, and government should get its thumb off the scale when it comes to that.
“Let’s get back to like we had it in the ’40s and ’50s.”
A US District Court judge previously described Lively as a “crackpot” in an official judgment.
Judge Michael A. Ponsor made the comments while ruling on a ‘crimes against humanity’ lawsuit brought against Lively over his role in securing Uganda’s 2014 Anti-Homosexuality Act.
While the judge ruled that the case could not proceed because the actions did not take place on US soil, he took time to describe Lively as a “crackpot bigot” who has caused “immense harm” around the world.
He wrote: “Anyone reading this memorandum should make no mistake.
“The question before the court is not whether Defendant’s actions in aiding and abetting efforts to demonise, intimidate, and injure LGBTI people in Uganda constitute violations of international law. They do.
“The much narrower and more technical question posed by Defendant’s motion is whether the limited actions taken by Defendant on American soil in pursuit of his odious campaign are sufficient to give this court jurisdiction over Plaintiff’s claims. Since they are not sufficient, summary judgment is appropriate for this, and only this, reason.”
He wrote: “Discovery confirmed the nature of Defendant’s, on the one hand, vicious and, on the other hand, ludicrously extreme animus against LGBTI people and his determination to assist in persecuting them wherever they are, including Uganda.
“The evidence of record demonstrates that Defendant aided and abetted efforts (1) to restrict freedom of expression by members of the LBGTI community in Uganda, (2) to suppress their civil rights, and (3) to make the very existence of LGBTI people in Uganda a crime.
“The record also confirms that these efforts to intimidate and injure the LGBTI community in Uganda were, unfortunately, to some extent successful.
“This crackpot bigotry could be brushed aside as pathetic, except for the terrible harm it can cause. The record in this case demonstrates that Defendant has worked with elements in Uganda who share some of his views to try to repress freedom of expression by LGBTI people in Uganda, deprive them of the protection of the law, and render their very existence illegal.
“He has, for example, proposed twenty-year prison sentences for gay couples in Uganda who simply lead open, law-abiding lives.”
The GOP primary will take place on September 4 ahead of the 2018 Massachusetts gubernatorial election on November 6.
