Prolific religious homophobe and regular spewer of hate speech denies living a double life on Grindr
A South African man condemned for his homophobic hate speech, Christiaan Otto, has been accused of living a double life with a secret Grindr account.
Otto, who professes to be the manager of a gold mine, regularly causes outrage on social media with his religious homophobia.
He recently let loose a firestorm of Facebook posts claiming that homosexuality is a mental illness and that the COVID-19 pandemic is a punishment against the “godless” LGBT+ community.
In one video he said: “Let me make one thing clear, homosexuality is 110 per cent a sin. It doesn’t mean I hate people who practice it, I’m just calling it what it is.”
In another post, he wrote: “God created marriage to be between a man and a woman. I don’t care how you feel about it, only God defines marriage – not you!”
He also believes that those who practice sex before marriage or watch porn are sinners and “if you die in your sin you won’t go to heaven!”
The posts grew so inflammatory that a local LGBT+ advocacy group launched an official complaint with the South African Human Rights Commission last week.
Otto may now be regretting drawing attention to himself, though. As the South African LGBT+ community rose against him, a campaign called “Expose Christiaan Otto” uncovered a Grindr profile that appears to belong to none other… than Christiaan Otto.
The group shared what seem to be screenshots of Otto soliciting a man for sex under the alter ego Richard Bay, describing himself as “bottom/vers”.
“Now is officially the time you stop,” the group wrote to Otto in a statement. “We will continue to expose you and raise up awareness against your hate speech.
“You might have a ‘God’ or ‘prophet’ complex, but get one thing straight, you are NOT a prophet nor some form or religious authority, you are simply a desperate individual that constantly looks for clout and fame in whatever sick way you find next.
“You think controversial opinions will get you attention, well now you have it, but I doubt in the way you want it.”
Otto has fiercely denied the allegations, telling MambaOnline: “I thought Grindr was something that you cut metal with.”
He insisted that he has never had a profile on Grindr or any other gay dating app and has never approached other men for sex.
He claims that the accusations are attempts to discredit him and the group would “create fake things to make you look bad – any person can see that this is happening”.
“All they are doing is creating falsehood against me,” he added. “They just took old photos off of my Facebook account and they created this profile. It’s not rocket science.”
However, this is thrown into doubt by a further set of screenshots which the group claims is “is conclusive information that the Grindr messages [were] legitimate”.
They appear to show Otto responding to an alleged Grindr hookup with the WhatsApp message: “I thought I could trust you dude. You say you deleted the Grindr chats. What are you trying to do? Delete and block me!”
He then warns the man that he will “burn in hell”.
Otto has now deleted his Facebook account.