WHAT is it with old, voluminously-bearded men with silly hats and their obsession with homosexuality?

Image via YouTube

Earlier this month I posted a piece about LGBT groups and the Anti-Defamation League condemning the Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, Shlomo Amar, above, for saying that gay people cannot be religious Jews and that homosexuality is “a wild lust that needs to be overcome” – and that only God can turn homosexuals “straight.”

Image via YouTube

Now it’s emerged that a Cyprus bishop, the Metropolitan of Morfou Neofytos, above, has becoming a laughing stock after telling school children that unborn babies turn gay when their pregnant mothers have anal sex.

He made the ridiculous claim in June while speaking at a primary school in Akaki, Cyprus, but it was only this week that a video of his address went viral.

The Greek Orthodox religious imbecile claimed that homosexuality is:

A problem, which is usually transmitted by parents to the child.

He explained:

It happens during the parent’s intercourse or pregnancy. It follows an unnatural sexual act between the parents. To be more clear, anal sex. [Saint Porfyrios] says that when the woman enjoys that, a desire is created, and then the desire is passed on to the child.

The clip went viral on social media in the country, with LGBT rights group ACCEPT asking:

How are lesbians created?

Another commenter asked:

So, father, if the woman does oral, will the child become a dentist?

Yet another wrote:

The problem is not this ignoramus, the tragic problem is that there are thousands who believe him.

Cyprus decriminalised homosexuality in 1998, and has rapidly made reforms on LGBT+ issues, though ultra-conservative attitudes persist and it lags behind much of Europe.

The country banned discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in 2004, while civil unions were introduced for same-sex couples in 2015.

A hate crime bill protecting LGBT+ people was passed in 2015, while a public consultation was held on a proposed gender recognition law in 2018.

However, same-sex adoption is still not legal in Cyprus and gay people remain banned from serving in the military.

In the Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, homosexuality was only decriminalised in 2014, and LGBT+ people still have little legal recognition.