Homophobe Scott Lively Will Be on Ballot for Mass. Governor

It's official: Scott Lively, the far-right Christian minister known for spreading homophobia internationally, will be on the ballot for Massachusetts governor in November.

Lively, who announced his candidacy several months ago, has submitted more than the 10,000 valid petition signatures needed to quality him for the ballot, the Massachusetts secretary of state's office confirmed to The Boston Globe Wednesday. He is running as an independent.

The leader of Springfield-based Scott Lively Ministries, Lively is the defendant in a lawsuit accusing him of spreading antigay ideology in Uganda, leading the nation to adopt its Anti-Homosexuality Act. He has disclaimed any responsibility for that law, but on his campaign website -- which, by the way, uses a rainbow image -- he does boast of influencing another country.

"I will work to pass a law following the Russian model of banning the promotion of non-traditional lifestyles to minors, a law for which I advocated while in Russia and the former Soviet Union in 2006 and 2007," he writes. "Lets [sic] rescue our children from being guinea pigs in a disastrous social experiment."

He has asserted that violent attacks on LGBT people in Russia since the law's enactment have been committed not by homophobes but rather by "butch homosexuals who are beating up effeminate homosexuals." Among Lively's other antigay accomplishments: He is coauthor of The Pink Swastika, a book that claims the Nazi Party was controlled by gay people.

Lively, who is unlikely to receive much support in strongly liberal Massachusetts, is one of four gubernatorial candidates who have qualified for the ballot, and a fifth is likely to be in the running, the Globe reports. The winner will succeed two-term governor Deval Patrick, a Democrat and LGBT supporter who decided not to run again.

In the September 9 primary, three candidates are seeking the Democratic nomination. Two of them are state officials --Attorney General Martha Coakley and Treasurer Steven Grossman -- and the third, Donald M. Berwick, worked in the federal government as head of Medicare and Medicaid. Charlie Baker, a former health insurance company executive, and Mark R. Fisher, a businessman, are vying to be the Republican nominee.

In addition to Lively, the independent candidates, who do not have to run in the primary, are businessman Evan Falchuk, who qualified for the ballot this summer, and Jeff McCormick, a venture capital investor who is expected to qualify once he submits the proper paperwork, the Globe reports.