The suit was filed in federal court in Springfield against minister Scott Lively under a statute that Sexual Ministries Uganda says allows non-citizens to file U.S. court actions for violations of international law.

Frank Mugisha, who heads the advocacy group, said it was singling Lively out for "helping spread propaganda and violence" against Uganda's gay people.

"We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda," said Mugisha, who won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award last year. "We want to send out a clear message to him and to others."

Lively, of Abiding Truth Ministries, is one of a handful of American pastors who Ugandan gay activists accuse of having helped draft the original version of the African nation's anti-homosexuality bill.

The bill called for the death penalty for certain homosexual acts. It has since been revamped to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment as a maximum sentence.

Lively told The Associated Press on Wednesday afternoon that he hadn't read the lawsuit yet, but believed the legal action was "absurd" and "completely frivolous." He didn't return a message later in the day, after the AP provided him with a copy of the lawsuit.

The suit asks for a judgment that Lively's actions are illegal and violate international law and human rights. The New York-based group Center for Constitutional Rights filed the suit on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda. Center attorney Pam Spees said it also seeks monetary damages.

About 70 protesters marched Wednesday about a half-mile from the U.S. District Court to Lively's business, the Holy Grounds Coffee House. They dressed in black and beat drums, carrying signs with the names of persecuted Ugandans and even coffins to symbolize death allegedly due to persecution. The group spent about 10 minutes in front of the coffee house, leaving white flowers there.

"In Uganda, people are dying because of this hate," Springfield resident Helen Graves said.

The Ugandan government said in a statement last month that it didn't support the bill, but that debate about it must go on.

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Associated Press writer Rodney Muhumuza contributed to this story from Kampala, Uganda.

SOURCE: Associated Press | BRIDGET MURPHY