A Scottish aspiring politician has been slammed for claiming the COVID-19 pandemic was potentially caused by gay marriage.
Peter Tait, a retired mussel farmer and Independent candidate for Shetland, made the comments in an interview with The Shetland Times on Saturday (local time).
When asked about his stance on gay marriage, he told the publication: "COVID is possibly related to it".
He claimed the position was faith-related and understood there would likely be backlash.
"I'm representing as best I can things that God would want me to represent," he said.
The comments were condemned, including by Kerrie Meyer, the founder of ShetlandLGBTQ.org.uk.
"It is obvious to any sane and educated person that Mr Tait is clearly an idiot by espousing such a nonsense notion," Meyer said, according to The Daily Record.
"His ridiculous belief that COVID is a causation of gay marriage is not only a dangerous conspiracy theory but could propagate and incite hate of gay people and surely contravenes the Equality Act 2010.
"So-called free speech that promotes such hate and division should not be given a platform. The Electoral Commission could take measures against Mr Tait for promoting such a dangerous conspiracy theory and vile comments about gay marriage. In the meantime, he needs to climb back into his primeval hole."
Tait stood in the 2019 by-election, The Shetland Times reported, however, he only received 31 votes.
