US religious right at center of anti-LGBTQ+ message pushed around the world

Christian website designer Lorie Smith, who won her supreme court battle last week. Critics say the ruling will allow businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ+ people. Photograph: Andrew Harnik/AP

When the US evangelical preacher and anti-LGBTQ+ crusader Scott Lively landed in Uganda in 2009 to warn of the “gay agenda”, he was arriving after a series of culture-war defeats at home.

More and more US states were recognizing same-sex marriage, and opinion polls were showing fewer and fewer Americans objected. Lively was there to offer Uganda’s lawmakers some advice on how to drum up outrage. “Emphasize the issue of the homosexual recruitment of children,” he advised.