U.S. pastor Steven Anderson has been banned from visiting South Africa over his anti-gays views, which the country’s home affairs minister on Tuesday equated with hate speech. Anderson, of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Arizona, notoriously welcomed the gunning down in June of 50 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida by saying “there’s 50 less pedophiles in this world”.
South African gay and lesbian groups collected more than 60,000 signatures opposing his visit this weekend, when he was expected to preach and seek converts to his church. Citing anti-discrimination laws designed to “prevent and prohibit hate speech”, Home Affairs minister Malusi Gigaba told a media briefing he was banning Anderson indefinitely. South Africa became the first country in Africa to legalize gay marriage in 2006, but homosexuality is still widely frowned upon and same-sex unions are often decried as “un-African”. READ MORE
