UK

Great British Bake Off star inundated with ‘immense’ love and positivity after receiving homophobic letter

The baking star has been inundated with messages of support online (Shirlaine Forrest/WireImage/Getty)

Former Great British Bake Off contestant Rav Bansal has been flooded with “love and positivity” after sharing a vile homophobic letter he received from a stranger.

Bansal appeared on the hit show in 2016, and came out publicly as gay last month. He is a proud Sikh and the anonymous letter writer claimed that Bansal’s “perverse lifestyle” causes “offence” to Sikhs.

“I feel as though you are promoting a false image of being a person who can follow the religion, yet you promote a perverse lifestyle as if it is something you should be proud of,” they wrote.

“This is something that you should have kept to yourself. Sikhism explicitly says that lustful behaviour is prohibited and the fact that you went public with this concerns me, immensely.”

Sikhism has no specific teachings on homosexuality, and the Sikh holy scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, does not explicitly mention heterosexuality, homosexuality or bisexuality.

Bansal shared the lettter on Twitter and admitted that it had upset him more than he wanted it to. “When I decided to come out publicly I expected to be faced with some negativity,” he said.

“For the most part I have been able to ignore it, but this letter cut me a bit deeper. Annoyingly, it upset me more than I should have allowed it to. Religion should never be used to justify hate.”

But the amount of support that the Bake Off star received in response far outweighed the letter writer’s hatred. Nearly 500 people sent Bansal messages of support on Twitter alone, proving who the real winner is here.

A day after sharing the homophobic abuse, Bansal wrote this happy message to his followers:

You do you, Rav! Your fans have clearly got your back.

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