School Vandalized Hours Before Antigay Event

Bricks were thrown through several windows Saturday morning at a suburban Chicago Christian school that later in the day hosted an event featuring antigay activist Scott Lively.

The incident occurred around 7 a.m. at Christian Liberty Academy in Arlington Heights, the Chicago Tribune reports. Local police are still investigating, and no arrests have been made.

Saturday evening the school was the site of the annual banquet of the antigay group Americans for Truth about Homosexuality, which presented an award to Lively. Chicago's Gay Liberation Network, which organized a picket of the event, issued a press release saying, "Though he denies it, Lively is widely seen as a principal promoter of Uganda's 'kill the gays bill' which would institute the death penalty for what it terms 'serial homosexuality' and prison sentences for those who defend gays or fail to report them to the police."

Americans for Truth about Homosexuality and Lively's Abiding Truth Ministries have both been classified as hate groups by the Southern Poverty Law Center, not only because of their virulently antigay stances, but because they make "claims about LGBT people that have been thoroughly discredited by scientific authorities," according to the SPLC.

Gay Liberation Network activists added that they did not know who committed the vandalism earlier in the day, and Arlington Heights police said no incidents were reported during the event.