DUP politician who blamed Hurricane Katrina on gays awarded MBE
A DUP politician who blamed the spread of AIDS in Africa on gay people engaging in the “filthy practice of sodomy” is in the New Year honours list.
Ballymena Democratic Unionist Councillor Maurice Mills has been awarded an MBE by the Queen.
The Guardian reports the councillor stated that Hurricane Katrina was God’s revenge for an annual Pride event called the Southern Decadence festival held in New Orleans.
On the 2005 disaster which killed 1,300 people and left tens of thousands homeless, Cllr Mills said: “The media failed to report that the hurricane occurred just two days prior to the annual homosexual event called the Southern Decadence festival which the previous year had attracted an estimated 125,000 people”.
Cllr Mills said: “Surely this is a warning to nations where such wickedness is increasingly promoted and practised.”
He also blamed the spread of AIDS in Africa on gay people.
“This abominable and filthy practice of sodomy has resulted in the great continent of Africa being riddled with AIDS,” Cllr Mills said.
The Northern Ireland LGBT rights organisation the Rainbow Project demanded that his party reject Cllr Mills’s comments but the DUP declined to do so. The DUP councillor has never retracted his remarks.
