Protesters held a ‘Drag Queen Disco’ outside church of NZ pastor who blamed gays for earthquakes
A group of people held a ‘drag queen disco’ protest outside of Brian Tamaki’s church against his comments saying gay people were the cause of recent earthquakes in New Zealand.
People gathered outside of the Manukau branch of Destiny Church to disco early this morning as church goers headed in.
Participants, young and old, dressed up and danced to YMCA to draw attention to the Bishops recent comments.
Wayne Baker, who organised the event, said the protest was a success.
Baker told the New Zealand Herald: “It went really well. We had a lot of toots of support from the public and cheering and waving. It felt like a party, but at 10am. It just goes to show the views of Brian Tamaki are the views of Brian Tamaki.”
Baker was worried the protestors might receive abuse, but overall said the experience was positive.
“They got the message. They saw us. And we had a good time.”
Baker said that they had planned “to be out front doing some chanting, playing some gay anthems probably. We’ll have a drag show or two.”
However, the “family-friendly and fun” protest only drew a small crowd. Some people refused to go because “someone said we were sexualising the event because of the drag,” however Baker insisted that “all we want to do is raise awareness, to show the LGBT community won’t tolerate this sort of behaviour.”
The event page on Facebook set up to plan the protest saw some commenters defended Tamaki, saying “he has gay friends.”
Bishop Tamaki blamed homosexuals for the recent series of earthquakes across New Zealand.
Destiny Church leader, Brian Tamaki said the earth “convulses under the weight of certain human sin,” during his sermon on Sunday. The day before the fatal 7.5 earthquake struck the country and killed two people.
“If next year [natural disasters] happen, you know why. Massive earthquakes have already hit in Christchurch. You could have just about predicted that one,” Tamaki said, referencing the deadly 2011 Christchurch earthquake that killed 185 people.
“The churches there [have] allowed all sorts of activity you wouldn’t dare to imagine. If I’m bulldozing your ignorance, good. Because there were churches there that weren’t churches. They were actively involved in homosexual practice, homosexual priests.”
