Remy De La Mauviniere / AP

French justice minister Christiane Taubira, right, sits on the government bench with social affairs minister Dominique Bertinotti, center, and prime minister Jean Marc Ayrault, during the vote at the National Assembly in Paris, Tuesday Feb. 12, 2013, of a new law legalizing gay marriage. France's lower house of parliament has approved a sweeping bill to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children.

France's lower house of parliament approved a sweeping bill on Tuesday to legalize gay marriage and allow same-sex couples to adopt children, handing a major legislative victory to President Francois Hollande's Socialists on a divisive social issue.

The measure, approved in the National Assembly in a 329-to-229 vote, puts France on track to join about a dozen mostly European nations that allow gay marriage and comes despite a string of recent demonstrations by opponents of the so-called "marriage for all" bill.

Polls indicate a narrow majority of French support legalizing gay marriage, though that support falls when questions about the adoption and conception of children come into play.

The Assembly has been debating the bill, and voting on its individual articles in recent weeks. The overall legislation now goes in the coming weeks to the Senate, which also is controlled by the governing Socialists and their allies.

With Tuesday's vote, France joins Britain in taking a major legislative step in recent weeks toward allowing gay marriage and adoption — making them the largest European countries to do so. The Netherlands, Belgium, Norway and Spain, as well as Argentina, Canada and South Africa have authorized gay marriage, along with nine U.S. states and the District of Columbia.

The issue has exposed fault lines between a progressive-minded leftist legislative majority in officially secular France, and the country's conservative religious roots. Critics — including many Roman Catholics — have railed that the bill would erode the traditional family. Socialists, however, sought to depict the issue as one of equal rights, and they played off France's famed Revolution-era motto of "Liberty, Equality and Fraternity."

"This law is going to extend to all families the protections guaranteed by the institution of marriage," Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said before Tuesday's vote. "Contrary to what those who vociferate against it say — fortunately they're in the minority — this law is going to strengthen the institution of marriage."

'Social evolution'
As with many major and controversial reforms in France, the issue drew its share of political grandstanding over weeks of debate. Conservative opponents forced a discussion of nearly 5,000 amendments, a move derided by Socialists as inconsequential stalling tactics. But by the final vote, the government rank-and-file rolled out grand, solemn statements of victory.

"This law is a first necessary step, a social evolution that benefits society overall," said Socialist representative Corinne Narassiguin, announcing her party's support for the measure. "Opening up marriage and adoption to homosexual couples is a very beautiful advance. ... It is an emblematic vote, a vote that will mark history."

However, the political right hasn't given up just yet, saying the Constitutional Court — whose 12 members include three former French presidents and several other prominent conservatives — will determine whether the law, if finally passed, meshes with the law of the land.

"So it's not the end of the story yet," said Herve Mariton, a member of the main opposition UMP party. "We still have arguments to make and we want to convince people that it is not a good project."

The government didn't get all it wanted. The Socialists last month backed off plans to link the gay marriage measure to relaxed restrictions on fertility treatments, after catching political heat for its stance on assisted reproduction. The issue is expected to come up in a separate bill later this year.

Hollande made legalizing gay marriage one of the planks in his 60-point program on the way to winning the presidency in May over conservative incumbent Nicolas Sarkozy. But Hollande's popularity has fallen along with France's lackluster economic performance, and his foes on the right appear to sense he might be vulnerable on a high-profile social issue.

The latest polls suggest a narrow majority of French support gay marriage, but that has declined from about two-thirds support in August. In mid-January, at least 340,000 people swarmed on the Eiffel Tower to protest the plan to legalize gay marriage, according to police estimates. Two weeks later, about 125,000 proponents of the bill marched in the capital.

French civil unions, allowed since 1999, are at least as popular among heterosexuals as among gay and lesbian couples. But that law has no provisions for adoption or assisted reproduction.

Related:

Why some in supposedly liberal France are up in arms about gay marriage

Yuri Kochetkov / EPA

Russian Interior Ministry officers detain two gay rights activists during an unsanctioned protest in front of the Duma, Russia's lower house of parliament, in Moscow on Friday.

Russia's parliament backed a draft law on Friday banning "homosexual propaganda," in what critics see as an attempt to shore up support for President Vladimir Putin in the country's largely conservative society.

Only one deputy in the State Duma lower house voted against the bill, but passions spilled over outside the chamber, where 20 people were detained after scuffles between Russian Orthodox Christians and gay activists who staged a "kiss-in" protest.

"We live in Russia, not Sodom and Gomorrah," United Russia deputy Dmitry Sablin said before the 388-1 vote in the 450-seat chamber. "Russia is a thousands-years-old country founded on its own traditional values - the protection of which is dearer to me than even oil and gas."

Veteran human rights campaigner Lyudmila Alexeyeva described the draft law as "medieval" and said it was intended to appeal to conservative voters after months of protests that have sapped Putin's popularity.

"It (the Duma) is relying on the ignorance of people who think homosexuality is some sort of distortion," she said.

The legislation has served to deepen divisions in society since Putin returned to the presidency in May and began moves seen by the opposition as designed to crackdown on dissent and smother civil society.

During the process, Putin and his supporters have underlined what they see as conservative, traditional Russian values.

He has drawn closer to the Russian Orthodox Church during this time, hoping the support of one of the most influential institutions in Russia will consolidate his grip on power.

Scuffles outside the Duma
In a sign of the passions caused by the bill, clashes broke out between supporters and opponents outside the Duma, a few hundred meters from the Kremlin in central Moscow.

Supporters, some of them holding Russian Orthodox icons and crosses, cheered and threw eggs as police hauled away gay activists, one of whom was splashed with green paint. Police said 20 people had been held.

The law must be passed in three readings by the lower house, approved by the upper house and then signed by Putin to go into force. It would ban the promotion of gay events across Russia and impose fines of up 500,000 roubles ($16,600) on organizers.

Supporters of the law welcome moves that would allow the banning of gay rights marches and complain about television and radio programs which they say show support for gay couples.

"The spread of gay propaganda among minors violates their rights," ruling United Russia party deputy, Elena Mizulina, who chairs the Duma's family issues committee. "Russian society is more conservative so the passing of this law is justified."

Putin's critics say the law is the latest in a series of legislative moves intended to stifle the opposition.

In a sign Kremlin-loyal lawmakers hope to eliminate all opposition in the house, two deputies who joined in street protests against Putin said on Friday that their Just Russia party threatened to kick them out if they continued to do so.

Public approval for Putin, who is now 60, stood in January at 62 percent, the lowest level since June 2000, an independent pollster said on Thursday.

Putin and the church
Putin, a former KGB spy who has criticized gays for failing to help reverse Russia's population decline, has increasingly looked for support among conservative constituencies and particularly the church to offset his falling support.

The Russian Orthodox Church, resurgent since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, has spoken out against homosexuality. Putin drew closer to the clergy during the trial and sentencing this summer of three members of the Pussy Riot punk band over their protest in the country's main cathedral.

Anti-gay propaganda laws are already in place in Arkhangelsk, Novosibirsk and St Petersburg, Putin's home city, where it was used unsuccessfully to sue American singer Madonna for $10 million for promoting gay love during a concert last year.

Some deputies raised concerns the bill would be misused, asking how it would define homosexuality, and one said the house was meddling in issues beyond its scope.

"Do you seriously think that you can foster homosexuality via propaganda?" the only deputy who voted against the bill, United Russia's Sergei Kuzin, challenged its authors during the debate.

Homosexuality, punished with jail terms in the Soviet Union, was decriminalized in Russia in 1993, but much of the gay community remains underground and prejudice runs deep.

In Moscow, city authorities have repeatedly declined permission to stage gay parades and gay rights' allies have often ended in arrests and clashes with anti-gay activists.

Yui Mok / AFP - Getty Images

The room stand to applaud outgoing Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams as they pay farewell tributes to him during a meeting at the General Synod of the Church of England, at Church House in central London on Nov. 21, 2012.

The Church of England has lifted a ban on gay male clergy who live with their partners from becoming bishops on condition they pledge to stay celibate, threatening to reignite an issue that splits the 80-million-strong global Anglican community.

The issue of homosexuality has driven a rift between Western and African Anglicans since a Canadian diocese approved blessings for same-sex couples in 2002 and U.S. Anglicans in the Episcopal Church appointed an openly gay man as a bishop in 2003.

The Church of England, struggling to remain relevant in modern Britain despite falling numbers of believers, is already under pressure after voting narrowly last November to maintain a ban on women becoming bishops.

The church said the House of Bishops, one of its most senior bodies, had ended an 18-month moratorium on the appointment of gays in civil partnerships as bishops.

The decision was made in late December but received little attention until the church confirmed it on Friday.

Gay clergy in civil partnerships would be eligible for the episcopate - the position of bishop - if they make the pledge to remain celibate, as is already the case for gay deacons and priests.

"The House has confirmed that clergy in civil partnerships, and living in accordance with the teaching of the Church on human sexuality, can be considered as candidates for the episcopate," the Bishop of Norwich Graham James said.

Church of England votes against allowing women bishops

"The House believed it would be unjust to exclude from consideration for the episcopate anyone seeking to live fully in conformity with the Church's teaching on sexual ethics or other areas of personal life and discipline," he added in a statement on behalf of the House of Bishops.

The church teaches that couples can only have sex within marriage, and that marriage can only be between a man and a woman.

Conservative outcry
Britain legalized civil partnerships in 2005, forcing the church to consider how to treat clergy living in same-sex unions.

The church ruled that a civil partnership was not a bar to a clerical position, provided the clergy remained celibate, but failed to specifically address the issue of when the appointment was of a bishop.

In July 2011 the church launched a review to deal with this omission, at the same time imposing the moratorium on nominating gays in such partnerships as bishops while the study was conducted.

The review came a year after a gay cleric living in a civil partnership was reportedly blocked from becoming a bishop in south London.

It was the second setback for the cleric, Jeffrey John, who would already have become a bishop in 2003 but was forced to withdraw from the nomination after an outcry from church conservatives.

Rod Thomas, chairman of the conservative evangelical group Reform, said the church's move on gay bishops would provoke further dispute.

"It will be much more divisive than what we have seen over women bishops. If you thought that was a furor, wait to see what will happen the first time a bishop in a civil partnership is appointed," he told BBC television.

More world stories from NBC News:

• 'Strong young woman': Taliban shooting victim Malala leaves hospital
• ANALYSIS: Is peace really in the air in Afghanistan?
• Commemoration or deification? Pakistan embraces 'political goddess' Bhutto
• Drug-resistant malaria threatens deadly global 'nightmare'
• From alcohol to kites: An A to Z guide to the Islamic Republic of 'Banistan'
• UK police: Attackers dressed as Oompa Loompas beat man
• Vatican launches swipe-card security system

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Marwan Naamani / AFP - Getty Images, file

Teddy, a Lebanese university graduate, performs a belly dance at a nightclub in Beirut, in this November 2007 file picture.

BEIRUT, Lebanon – It is 2 a.m. in an abandoned theater in Hamra, a neighborhood in the Lebanese capital.  Men pack the room, their fists pumping the air in time with the thumping music.  A bare-chested dancer in tight-fitting shorts glides around the stage, reaching his hand around another man’s neck, pulling him close and stealing a kiss.

These parties are popular with those who can afford the $33 entrance fee. For those looking for an alternative, around a dozen different bars and clubs aimed at gay men dot the city.

Beirut has for decades been a haven for gay men and lesbians, luring people from throughout the region, including deeply conservative countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Bahrain. But while the city’s image as an oasis of open-mindedness attracts foreigners - and sells newspapers - the liberal veneer disguises a conservative underbelly that recent police sweeps and reports of invasive “medical” tests have exposed.

Family ‘would not accept it’
Many gay men in Beirut carry on double lives despite living in what is considered to be the gay capital of the Middle East. 

“I’m only out to my close friends,” said "Jad," 22, who asked that his real name not to be published. “My family is quite religious and would not accept it.  When I was younger my mother made it clear that she would disown me if I came out to her.”

Indeed, while gay bars and clubs are common, homosexuality – or behavior deemed “contrary to nature” –  is illegal according to article 534 of the Lebanese penal code.

Technically, this means that only those who have been proven to engage in such illegal acts are liable for arrest.  In practice, “people have been arrested just because a particular security officer thinks that person might be gay,” human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh said.

“Despite the façade of tolerance, the reality is that a negative stigma of homosexuality persists,” said Georges Azzi, co-founder of Helem, a non-profit group working on lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) issues.

The burden is heaviest for homosexual men who don’t have the right connections and cannot afford to pay off officials to avoid punishment.

“Unless you know your rights or know someone in a position of power to help you, you’re in trouble,” said Rebecca Saade, who works on LGBT rights with an underground group that focuses on lesbians and transsexuals.

Anwar Amro / AFP - Getty Images, file

Lebanese demonstrators hold signs against "virginity tests" on women - and men suspected of homosexuality - during a protest in Beirut on August 11.

Gay men who cannot afford to live outside of the family home are more likely to engage in sexual acts in places where they could be caught.

An incident in July revealed the contradictory attitudes toward homosexuality in Lebanon. Leading local television station MTV released footage of several popular gay hangouts and police then raided two establishments and arrested patrons.

“I think the internal security forces felt pressured to act and arrested people in these theaters because they felt no one would pay any attention or care,” Helem’s Azzi said. “The theater was in a poor neighborhood and the customers are on the lowest rung of Lebanese society, many of them were non-Lebanese Arabs.”

A surprising watershed
While a raid in Lebanon’s second city Tripoli went relatively unnoticed, journalists jumped on reports of a one in the outskirts of Beirut after it emerged that dozens of men arrested had been subjected to physical tests.

The controversial procedure, which human rights lawyer Nizar Saghieh said has “no basis in science and is used as a tool of intimidation,” involves examining the anus for indications of sodomy.

The test has been standard for many years, according to human rights lawyer Saghieh, but was never before brought into the media spotlight. He estimates some 100 to 200 procedures take place every year.

Paradoxically, news that the men had been subjected to the invasive test jump-started a discussion on how homosexuals were treated in Lebanon.  Until then, the debate had focused whether to grant equal rights to homosexuals and revoke article 534, said Saghieh.

“But the debate was stagnant,” he added. “With the anal tests, the debate focused on a single aspect of how gays are treated and a lot of people, despite their view on article 534, felt the practice extreme.”

Indeed, the media was almost unanimous in condemning the practice following the revelations over the summer. Many referred to the practice as “tests of shame.”  One major TV channel went so far as to call Lebanon a “Republic of Shame,” a term that gained traction across social networking sites.

Following the furor, the Justice Minister Shakib Qortbawi passed a decree calling for an end to the tests. Gay rights campaigners cheered the speedy policy change.

“It is probably the biggest success story in terms of gay rights in the Arab world,” Saghieh said.

Factbox: Political risks to watch in Lebanon

Saade agreed that the government’s decision was significant.

Still, it was just one victory in a long fight for equal rights in Lebanon, advocates said.

“We have come a long way in the past decade or so, but at this point I think revoking law 534 remains a dream,” Saade said.

Indeed, if you aren’t part of the wealthy and privileged Beirut elite, being gay in Lebanon can still prove treacherous.

"Mazen," a 23-year-old who asked for his real name not to be used, said he’s been encouraged by signs that many people are becoming more accepting in Beirut.  But these changes are largely limited to the capital and have not reached his village in the south where homosexuality remains a major taboo.

Syria may exploit instability in Lebanon: Clinton

Like others in his position, he hides his sexual orientation from much of his family.

“I have told a few cousins who are of similar age but I would never come out to my mother. She would be heartbroken, ashamed and make sure it stayed within the family,” he said.

“If I came out to her, I think she would never speak to me again.”

Shane Farrell is an NBC News contributor and a reporter at NOW Lebanon.

More world stories from NBC News:

• Oasis of tolerance or 'Republic of Shame'? Two faces of gay life in Lebanon
• After decades of oppression, Kurds get taste of freedom in Syria
• 'A steep fall' for BBC as child sex abuse scandal rocks the UK
• Olympic medals 'stolen' as athletes party at nightclub
• Outrage after video shows Chinese teacher abusing kindergarteners
• 'The new Afghanistan'? West turns its attention to Mali
• Hate crimes rise, far right strengthens as Greece economy sinks
• Top 10 foreign policy issues facing a new president

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

Daniel Munoz / Reuters

Gay rights activists hold a rainbow flag during a rally to support same-sex marriage in central Sydney August 11.

Australian lawmakers voted on Wednesday by more than two-to-one against a proposal to legalize gay marriage.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reported that 98 members of the House of Representatives – including Prime Minister Julia Gillard -- voted against the plan, while 42 had supported it.

However Labor party politician Anthony Albanese, who supported the law, said that "all the figures show that there is majority community support on this issue... and I think at some future time, parliament will catch up with the community opinion," the broadcaster reported. "Just a few years ago there wouldn't have been the support of anything like 42 votes on the floor of the national parliament for a marriage equality bill," Albanese said.

ABC reported that the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Jim Wallace, had in a statement thanked those politicians who “as a matter of conscience, voted to ensure that marriage remained between a man and a woman."

ABC noted that Senator Cory Bernardi, of the center-right Liberal party, had resigned as a parliamentary secretary to his party’s leader Tony Abbott, after suggesting during a Senate debate Tuesday night that the next step after same-sex marriage would be to allow “three or four people that love each other being able to enter into a permanent union endorsed by society -- or any other type of relationship.”

He then added that there were “even some creepy people out there... [who] say it is OK to have consensual sexual relations between humans and animals,” Bernardi said, according to ABC. |Will that be a future step? In the future will we say, 'These two creatures love each other and maybe they should be able to be joined in a union.’ I think that these things are the next step.”

Supporter still 'confident'
The Age newspaper reported that advocates of same-sex marriage would now seek to persuade states within Australia to change the law.

"Now the federal parliament has effectively brushed the wishes of a majority of Australians aside, the states and territories will take the lead, making me confident we will see same sex marriages performed somewhere in Australia by the end of the year," Australian Marriage Equality convener Alex Greenwich said, according to the paper.

The Age added that in August Tasmania’s lower house had passed a bill to legalize gay marriage, which would now go to the state’s Legislative Council.

The paper said that Congress was to vote on another same-sex marriage bill Thursday.

Australia’s Foreign Minister Penny Wong, whose partner Sophie Allouache gave birth to a baby girl in December, said Wednesday that she was hurt by the claim from some senators that children of same-sex couples were worse off than those of mixed-gender couples, The Age reported.

"I do not regret that our daughter has Sophie and I as parents," Wong added. "I do regret that she lives in a world where some will tell her that her family is not normal. I regret that even in this chamber, elected representatives denigrate the worth of her family.”

More world stories from NBC News:

• Russia tells US: We don't want your aid money
• France shutters embassies, schools over new Muhammad cartoon
• State Department: No secret plan to invade Canada
• Early morning fire leaves hundreds homeless in the Philippines
• US Muslims denounce both violence and anti-Islam film
• Democracy declined worldwide in 2011 with Arab Spring at risk, watchdog says
• In Niger, child marriage on rise due to hunger

Follow World News from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook

The Salvation Army Australia is apologizing for an official’s comments suggesting that the charitable Christian organization believes homosexuals should be put to death.

Maj. Andrew Craibe, media relations director for Salvation Army Australia Southern Territory, found himself in the middle of a public-relations firestorm for comments he made on a gay-oriented Australian radio show last week.

Appearing on the “Salt and Pepper” radio program, Craibe was asked about the Salvation Army’s position on homosexuality and a section in its “Handbook of Doctrine” that cites a Biblical passage -- Romans 1:18-32 --  containing a condemnation of homosexuality. The passage mentions that in God’s eyes, “those who practice such things are deserving of death.”

One of the radio hosts, Serena Ryan, expressed concern over the passage and asked, “How do you respond to that as part of your doctrine?”

Craibe responded: “Well, that’s a part of our belief system. We have an alignment to the Scriptures that that’s our belief.”

Later, Ryan again pressed Craibe on the issue “Honestly, Andrew, tell me, as a human being, how can you qualify that?”

Craibe replied: “Well, I qualify by way of, that’s where my belief system is structured, you know? It’s what it comes down to, that salvation story, and that we can be redeemed from that. That’s my belief.”

On Saturday, two days after the interview, Salvation Army Australia issued a statement seeking to clarify its stance on gays and lesbians.

“This is a misunderstanding of the text referred to. The Scripture in question, viewed in its broader context, is not referring to physical death, nor is it specifically targeted at homosexual behavior. The author is arguing that no human being is without sin, all sin leads to spiritual death (separation from God), and all people therefore need a Saviour,” the statement said.  

“The Salvation Army acknowledges that the response in the interview has led to a serious misunderstanding of our teaching and that clarification should have been given during the interview.”

The statement added: “The Salvation Army sincerely apologises to all members of the GLBT community and to all our clients, employees, volunteers and those who are part of our faith communities for the offence caused by this miscommunication.”

The Salvation Army bills itself as one of the world’s largest Christian social welfare organizations, with more than 1.65 million members working in at least 123 countries.

More world news from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Spain's economic crisis turns middle-class families into illegal squatters
• Analysis: Egypt's big turn under the Muslim Brotherhood
• Iraq orders Voice of America, 43 other media outlets to close
• Report: Syrian general, dozens of other soldiers defect to Turkey

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

Core Issues

Core Issue ad, "Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it" was pulled before it could run on London buses.

Advertisements suggesting a cure for being gay were banned Thursday from running on London buses, British media reported.

The ads by Christian groups Core Issues Trust and Anglican Mainstream said, “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!” The words implying that people can get over being gay were scheduled to run for two weeks on 25 buses beginning next week.

The campaign was developed in response to gay-advocacy group Stonewall’s 1,000-bus equal-marriage campaign that began April 1. Its ads boast "Some people are gay. Get over it."

Stonewall

A 'Some People Are Gay. Get Over It!' advertisement on a London bus.

The Christian groups used the same black, red and white color scheme as Stonewall.

Core Issues leader Mike Davidson has said "homoerotic behavior is sinful," The Guardian reported.

The Core Issues website says it supports men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression and that it "respects the rights" of individuals who do not seek change.

"Heterosexual preference is the goal of gender-affirming therapy and this may lead to marriage," the group says.

Conservative London Mayor Boris Johnson used his position as Transport for London chairman to ditch the Christian ads. In his statement, reported by The Guardian, Johnson said:

Oli Scarff / Getty Images

Boris Johnson, mayor of London, is shown April 10.

"London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses."

After the mayor blocked the ads, Stonewall spokesman Andy Wasley said, "It is fantastic that no adverts will be promoting voodoo, gay-cure therapy in London."

Davidson told the Press Association: "I didn't realize censorship was in place. We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They OKed it and now it has been pulled."

The ban comes a day after “The American Prospect” ran an article in which retired psychiatrist and Columbia University professor Robert Spitzer retracted a much-criticized 2001 study used for years by anti-gay activists to buttress their claims that gay men and lesbians can be “cured” of their homosexuality through therapy. Spitzer asked the author, Gabriel Arana, to print a retraction of the 2001 study so that he “wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore.”

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

Phone hacking lawsuits to be filed in US courts
Drug smuggler needed: Mexico cartels, US battle in classified ads
Blind author's work recovered by forensic experts after her pen ran dry
N. Korea official says Thursday rocket launch unlikely

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world

BOSTON -- An East African gay advocacy group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Massachusetts evangelist Scott Lively, alleging he has waged a decade-long campaign to persecute gays in Uganda and likened them to Nazis.

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

Lively has dismissed the the legal action as "absurd" and "completely frivolous."

Frank Mugisha, who heads the advocacy group, said it was singling out Lively 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," Mugisha, who won the Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Award last year, said. "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 whom 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 such as when gay people with AIDS were caught having sex. It has since been revamped to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment as a maximum sentence.

Gay people likened to Nazis
The suit against Lively, whose Springfield church is known as Redemption Gate Mission Society, is part of wide-ranging legal action Ugandan gay groups are considering against individuals they consider hostile to the rights of homosexuals.

The complaint claims Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a "genocidal" and "pedophilic" gay movement, "which he likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers."

Gay activist on newspaper's 'hang them' list killed

About 70 protesters marched Wednesday about a half-mile from the U.S. District Court in Springfield 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 coffins to symbolize death allegedly due to persecution. The group spent about 10 minutes in front of the coffee house, leaving white flowers there.

Islamic, African countries walk out on UN gay panel

The suit asks for a judgment that Lively's actions are illegal and violate international law and human rights.

“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 …. To implement his strategies to dehumanize, demonize, silence, and further criminalize the LGBTI (Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex) community,” the lawsuit says.

Canada: Marriages of foreign gays are invalid

It adds that Lively and another anti-gay activist later described the effect of their actions as like a “nuclear bomb.”

The lawsuit says Lively’s work in the country “ignited a cultural panic and atmosphere of terror that radically intensified the climate of hatred in which Lively’s goals of persecution could advance.”

Lively: Comments 'selectively edited'
Lively said in his email that his words have been taken out of context.

"Most of the ostensibly inflammatory comments attributed to me are from selectively edited video clips of my 2009 seminars in Kampala," he said. "I challenge the plaintiffs and their allies to publish the complete footage of the seminar on the Internet. They will not do this or their duplicity would be exposed."

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.

“While Lively has half-heartedly tried to distance himself from the death penalty provision of the bill, he still considers it the ‘less of two evils’ as compared to recognizing the humanity of LGBTI individuals or permitting their speech or advocacy.”

Lively said Wednesday the legal action was "absurd" and "completely frivolous."

He said in an email to The Associated Press that he has never advocated violence against homosexuals. He said he has preached against homosexuality but advised therapy for gays, not punishment.

Lively also told the AP in November that he advised the Ugandan parliament "to focus on rehabilitation and not punishment."

He said he didn't oppose the criminalization of gays but said imprisonment and the death penalty are too harsh. He was among U.S. evangelicals who visited Uganda in 2009, after which debate began about the bill.

World leaders including President Barack Obama have condemned the Ugandan bill. But the draft legislation is popular in that country, where pastors frequently preach against homosexual behavior.

The Ugandan government said in a statement last month that it didn't support the bill, but that debate about it is allowed under the constitution.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

More from msnbc.com and NBC News:

• Soldier accused in Afghan massacre flown out of country
  22 kids die as bus crashes near Swiss ski area
• In 'KONY' town, video is hardly a sensation
• 'Fascinating' Libya to be next tourism hot spot?

Follow us on Twitter: @msnbc_world