Paramedic says gay weddings caused multiple fires in South Africa

A South African paramedic will face disciplinary action over comments he made about same-sex weddings.

Recent fires have ravaged areas of South Africa, leaving at least six people dead – including a three-year-old. 10,000 residents have been evacuated from their homes. Afrikaaner Bossie Boshoff, a South African resident and paramedic, has claimed that he knows what started the fires – gay weddings.

Last year, the Dutch Reformed Church allowed 12 same-sex weddings to take place at the Pink Loerie Mardi Gras festiva. Metro reports that Boshoff took to Facebook to explain that the fires are a result of God’s disdain over the weddings.

“Can you remember last year when Knysna was made up in pink and 12 homosexual marriages took place on one day?” Boshoff wrote. “It was only after the election of the Dutch Reformed Church when they approved gay homosexual marriage. It was all over the newspapers.

“It dared god. They mustn’t cry now about the fire. God doesn’t let himself be mocked.”

He has since deleted his account so the post is no longer visible.

Craig Grindell, Boshoff’s employer and managing director of Netcare911, confirmed that Boshoff will be subject to disciplinary action as a result of the post. “Netcare and Netcare 911 have a firm, zero tolerance stance towards discrimination of any kind,” Grindell said.

“We will not hesitate to take the strongest possible action when made aware of any action, and or behaviour, of a staff member which transgresses the company’’s values, ethics and code of conduct.”

This isn’t the first time someone has tried to blame LGBT+ people for bad weather. Last year, conservative columnist Andrew Bieszad tried to argue that Hurricane Matthew was punishment for Orlando’s Pride celebrations.

“Florida is a nice place, but it unfortunately has become a lot like California, representing both the best and the worst that America has to offer,” he wrote on conservative website Shoebat.

“This is especially true in the area of homosexuality. While there are many conservative and religious Floridians, there are a tremendous amount of sodomites and immoral activity that takes place there.

“Given the serious moral decay of America that we see taking place before our eyes and the increasing disrespect for even the most basic of Christian morality, looking at this storm I began to wonder if perhaps, in some way, it was connected to this crisis,” he wrote.

His theory was (obviously) a little light on evidence, so he went looking for a justification for the divine retribution: “Sure enough,” he wrote, “I found that both Orlando and Savannah are having massive sodomite pride parades this month, especially in Orlando, which is sponsoring this very weekend as the hurricane is about to hit a massive ‘coming out’ parade.”

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