Scottish politician Kevin Stewart has publicly hit back at an online troll who blamed a recent church fire on the Scottish National Party member’s sexuality.
On Wednesday St Simon’s church in Glasgow went up in flames. The fire started just before 3aqm, and within half an hour the building’s roof collapsed. Police and Fire Services are still investigating the cause of the blaze, but one person sent a message to the politician blaming his sexuality for the fire.
“It’s rare that I receive homophobic rants,” Stewart said, “but it seems that someone believes that my sexuality ’caused’ the devastating fire at St Simon’s in Glasgow and that I need to be ‘delivered from my homosexuality’.
“Unsurprisingly, I’ve refused the offer to ‘pray the gay’ out of me.’”
The politician shared a screen shot of the communication which suggested he needed to be ‘delivered from homosexuality’.
“God has confirmed my prophetic word to you through the tragic fire”. the message read, it ended saying “We urgently need to discuss your deliverance from homosexuality on Friday 30 July. I look forward to your response.”
Stewart is not even the member representing the area, his electorate is in Aberdeen, 240 kilometers away.
“It is galling that in 2021 that a small minority of people still think this way and it is utterly abhorrent that this person believes that they can pray the gay’ out of me or anyone else.” the MP said.
“Scotland has made huge progress on equality issues in the past couple of decades and long may that continue.
“We should strive to ensure that today’s LGBT+ young people can live their best lives without facing the discrimination that many faced in the past and we should unite to consign prejudice to the dustbin of history.”
The Scottish government has welcomed the announcement that the British government lead by Boris Johnson will be introducing legislation to ban conversion practices.
“The Scottish Government is strongly supportive of the UK Government’s commitment to ban conversion therapy, which we are clear is an abhorrent practice that has no place in Scotland.” the government said back in June.
“We are waiting to see the exact detail of the UK Government’s proposals in terms of whether they are likely to cover Scotland. But if the proposed actions do not result in the banning of this discriminatory and harmful practice in Scotland, we will consider our next steps in banning conversion therapy, in so far as is possible within the powers of the Scottish Parliament.”
OIP Staff
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