Pastor says he wishes ‘every homo would die’ at Make America Straight Again
US Pastor Steven Anderson said he wished “every homo would die.” (STRINGER/AFP/Getty)
A pastor has said he wishes “every homo would die” when confronting protesters outside the Make America Straight Again (MASA) conference in Orlando.
The three-day conference was held over the weekend, June 14 to 16, and was organised by the New Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church (NIFB) to take place on the third anniversary of the Pulse nightclub shooting.
Truth Wins Out, an organisation which combats “anti-gay religious extremism,” caught pastor Steven Anderson on video confronting protestors outside the MASA conference saying he was “totally non-violent,” but that he wished “every homo would die.”
“A group of bigoted pastors who want to put LGBT people to death held a conference this weekend in Orlando on the third anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre,” said Truth Wins Out said in a press release.
“Truth Wins Out joined an estimated 150 protesters today to demonstrate against the Make America Straight Again hate event. Pastor Steven Anderson confronted the protesters and spewed ‘I wish that every homo would die’ and ‘Get AIDS and die’.
“One of the event organisers said of today’s protest: ‘Pray that if they do any protests, that it gets violent. They have Stand Your Ground in Florida. So we’re allowed to fight back.'”
Anderson goes on to say in the video: “I want my children to live in a country where they don’t have to look at these freaks every day and have their eyes corrupted.”
YouTube has not taken down video of Pastor Steven Anderson saying: “Homos are pedophiles”
Live streams of the anti-gay conference were uploaded to YouTube, and while some have been removed for violating the platform’s hate speech policy, others have not been taken down at this time.
In the livestream of Saturday’s conference speeches, which still remains online, Anderson said: “This should be obvious to every rational person, it doesn’t matter what angle we look at this from, homos are pedophiles.”
49 people were killed and 53 injured in the Orlando Pulse nightclub shooting on June 12 2016, which was at that time America’s deadliest mass shooting, and victims were mostly LGBT+.
