A leading Iranian cleric has warned his followers against taking the COVID-19 vaccine. The reason: it will make them gay.
Ayatollah Abbas Tabrizian–whom followers describe as the “Father of Islamic Medicine”–wrote a homophobic rant to his Telegram account over the weekend. In it, he told his approximately 210,000 followers that the COVID vaccine is rapidly turning the world gay.
“Don’t go near those who have had the COVID vaccine. They have become homosexuals,” Tabrizian wrote.
The assertion may seem odd, though a bit of context offers a clue as to Tabrizaian’s motives.
Related: Iran is forcing gay men to undergo sex reassignment surgery or be executed
“Actually, his goal of spreading nonsense is to try to scare people [out] of getting vaccinated while the leader of the regime and other officials got Pfizer and they don’t provide it for the people with the excuse that they don’t trust the West,” Iranian dissident Sheina Vojoudi told the Jerusalem Post.
“Like other clerics in the regime, also Tabrizian relates all the shortages to sexuality. The clerics in Iran are suffering from lack of knowledge and humanity,” Vojoudi added.
In other words, the Iranian regime is unable to offer the vaccine to most of the nation’s population. Instead, Tabrizian wants to avoid public outcry by scaring the public away from wanting vaccination. Iran has a long history as one of the most homophobic nations on the planet; persons caught engaging in homosexual activity are subject to execution or forced gender transition.
For the record, this isn’t the first time Ayatollah Tabrizian has raised some questionable methodology when it comes to COVID. Last year, he advised followers to avoid the virus by combing hair, eating onions and stuffing a cotton ball in their anus.
At the time of this writing, Iran has documented about 1.5 million cases of COVID-19, with more than 58,000 deaths. Experts widely consider the country one of the worst-hit on earth, alongside Brazil, India and the United States. Late last year, the American newspaper The Nation reported that Iran is on the brink of total collapse due to the chaos sewn by the virus.
jkb
Well, look at that. Iranians and Republicans are more alike than we thought
ted72
??Well stated
Mundo
Yes, they are. Not surprised.
joeboyle49
YES WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT THAT IRANIANS AND REPUBLICANS THINK THE SAME??
Invader7
Ms Thang is wearing her turban too tight. Pushed what few brains cells he had into oblivion and he’s spouting some truly STUPID crap!!!
Norm
Religion is a form of mental illness.
lather
If someone had told the world that the virus will make you gay, maybe everyone would have practiced prevention guidelines. That would have been a brilliant strategy.
Mack
Cool, more to choose from. The more the merrier. Then we can take over governments and get things done the right way.
Den
How many times have American Evangelical clerics pushed the came kind of insanity? How many would believe Pat Robertson if he were to make a similar statement (which would not be too far fetched for him).
And with 210,000 followers in a country of 84,000,000, “leading cleric” is a bit of an exaggeration. That is .25% of the population, so his silly pronouncements are not likely to have much effect.
James
LOOK AT THAT UGLY HIDEOUS FACE IN THE PHOTOGRAPH. NOBODY WANTS HIM. HE IS A LOSER.
Chrisk
It’s always funny when these religious loons try the science thing which they don’t believe in most of the time anyways.
At least our loony’s aren’t so dangerous because they’re still reined in to some degree.
cuteguy
The ppl listening to this mor0n will hopefully not get the vaccine and die off. Same for Trump supporters. Let them all die off. More vaccines for us
Kangol2
A Don the Con-loving Republican from Texas, US Representative Ron Wright, just died from Covid-19!
He’s the first sitting Congressperson to get Covid-19 and die from it.
Openminded
To my knowledge, taking out health care workers, the majority of those vaccinated so far are in the 70+ age group. Being closer to 70 than I care to be, I can state with authority, ain’t nobody coming close to us anyway so what does it matter if it is causing homosexuality?
Ginger Tom
If Ayatollah Tabrizian and the rest of the Iranian élite have taken the gay vaccine while denying it to the Iranian population at large then the results should be plain for all to see very soon. I don’t think they have fully thought this through.
NateOcean
The vaccine comes in two parts:
The first one only makes you bisexual; the second injection turns you gay.
djguapo
Let’s give it to Sean Mendez and Instagram model Christian Hogue then.
Tombear
So does this mean the vaccine will turn me straight?