Javier Soto, self-proclaimed pastor from Chile, insulted LGBT people on TV when he used a rainbow flag and put it under his feet. He didn’t realize that the flag was the wrong one — it actually represented the city of Cusco, Peru. Soto called the rainbow cloth he stepped on “a filthy rag.” He said: “I’m cold on my feet, so we’re going to put a rug in. This is a rug that I use in the shows I’m doing. This is the filthy rag I’m going to put here to do the show. This is a filthy rag that I always use.”
The host of the show, José Miguel Villouta, was clearly insulted: “I am homosexual, this is my show, and this seems to me a lack of respect and I can’t accept this, so I would ask if you can take that out, to have the conversation we want.”
Many people and groups are criticizing Soto’s actions and violence. The Movimiento de Integracion y Liberacion Homosexual (Movement for Homosexual Integration and Freedom) released a statement denying that he had ever been a pastor.
Javier Soto is a constant danger for the respect to people’s dignities, besides being deserving of our maximum repudiation for his constant violence, which we do not tolerate… back in November 2015, Javier Soto was convicted of insulting, slandering, offending and assaulting the movement’s leader Rolando Jiménez based on his sexual orientation. In the conviction, Soto was convicted of a ‘hate crime’ and ‘discrimination,’ as well as confirming he had never been a pastor.
That’s not the first time that the self-identified pastor offended LGBT community with his anti-gay views. In late 2014, he was ejected from the Chilean House of Deputies because he attacked lawmakers for approving an LGBT-inclusive initiative that would give legal protection to unmarried couples. Soto burst into the chamber holding a poster for the AVP (Acuerdo de Vida en Pareja) bill, calling it the filth and perversion the lawmakers are offering up. He also assaulted the spokesperson for Homosexual Movement of Integration and Liberation, Rolando Jiménez.
The problem with Javier Soto and other people who are promoting hate speech or violence is that they don’t have — or they don’t know how — to use arguments in the discussion. Soto claims that pro-LGBT people are promoting unhealthy, anti-family ideas the same way some religious people do in the United States using religious texts to justify their obviously wrong attitudes.
Photo Credits: Patheos
