Scottish politician slammed for saying COVID pandemic 'possibly related' to gay marriages

Scottish politician who is an independent candidate from Shetland, Peter Tait has drawn flack against him after he claimed that the COVID-19 pandemic was caused due to gay marriages. He said the coronavirus outbreak, that has rocked the world for more than a year causing millions of deaths was “possibly related” to same-sex marriages.

Tait, who is also a former mussel farmer, made the baseless and shocking remark during an interview with the local newspaper Shetland Times while admitting that his opinion is influenced by his religious beliefs. The Scottish politician also claimed that he was attempting to “represent…things that God would want (him) to represent”.

While speaking on same-sex marriages, he said that he did not support the idea and would also be fighting against the same during the Shetland MSP elections, as reported by Daily Mirror. Tait also said, “Covid is possibly related to it,” acknowledging that he would face stern backlash or his remarks.

LGBTQ+ activists call Tait an ‘idiot’

Several LGBTQ+ activities have denounced Scottish politician’s remarks and called him an “idiot” for promoting such discriminatory views. Daily Record quoted Kerrie Myers, the founder of ShetlandLGBTQ.org.uk saying that it is “obvious” to any person that “Tait is clearly an idiot” by encouraging such “nonsense notion.”

Terming it a “dangerous conspiracy theory”, the founder of Shetland-based LGBTQ organisation said that the “ridiculous” belief of former Mussels farmer could further incite hate of gay persons while contravening the Equality Act 2010. Myers also called for such “hate speech” to not be given any platform as it promotes division.

Further, on Twitter, several internet users lambasted Tait for his views with one of the netizens saying, “Peter Tait, you’re delusional for even thinking gay marriage caused Covid-19.” One Twitter user wrote, “How in modern-day society is such an individual allowed to be a candidate. Being religious is acceptable but why incite such vile and disagreeable behaviour. Let’s see how many narrow mindedness votes you get.”

Notably, Tait is not the first lawmaker to have related the pandemic with same-sex marriages. In March 2020, Patriarch Filaret who heads the Ukrainian Orthodox Church blamed gay marriages for the coronavirus pandemic and called it, “God’s punishment for the sins of men, the sinfulness of humanity...First of all, I mean same-sex marriage...This is the cause of the coronavirus.”

Image credits: Unsplash/Pixabay