As Christchurch staggers amidst the death an destruction of Tuesday's earthquake Christian extremists are already begining to seize their chance to blame the devastation on the city's gays and lesbians and those who embrace them. In a message apparently circulated to MPs and elected officials around the country within hours of Tuesday's disaster, and originally sent to all MPs after the September 'quake, the senior minister of Auckland's Victory Community Church is reiterating that legal recognition of same sex relationships is one of the factors leading to such tragedies. "New Zealand cannot go on murdering unborn children, undermining the God-given authority of parents to discipline their children, legalising prostitution, homosexual unions (in kind to marriage)... " Max Legg says. In the original September message he thundered "stop doing these things or something worse will come upon you all." And a mid-western USA-hosted website, christchurchquake.net, is connecting both earthquakes with a conflation of rants against "swamp lesbians," Gay Ski Week: "the Snow Gaymes... plane loads of perverts," "The Homosexual Religion - The Devil is A Lesbian" and all manner of perceived social ills. The site harangues its readers about "New Zealand's lesbian leaders" and includes the Kiwi- or Australian-sounding message: "Copyright - Christchurch Earthquake - No More Poofter of the many readers who are emailing GayNZ.com Daily News on the subject, says, "I am all for free speech along with opinions, but this is just wrong," he says. "Righteous babble is not going to help those who are suffering right now." Karetai is advising people disgusted at the site's content to email the host at abuse@bluehost.com "to express how disgusted you are as a New Zealander at the views that are expressed and to stand up for the people of Christchurch and more importantly New Zealand in our time of need."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 24th February 2011 - 12:56pm