An Irish Jewish History Research Associate at the University of Ulster has caused controversy after launching into a scathing, deeply offensive attack on homosexuality on Facebook.university of ulster coleraine homophobic university research associate

The university researcher decided to get involved in a friendly, public Facebook debate on the current Ashers Bakery furore by posting a profoundly disturbing, horrifically homophobic analysis of the gay community.

Dr Mark Gilfillan begins by stating that homosexuality is nothing more than “a bizarre fetish that has resulted in 72% of new cases of HIV… even though they [homosexuals] represent fewer than 2% of the population.” He continues “Much of this is due to the ‘culture’ of this group (which includes being applauded by morons while gyrating half-naked in the presence of children during their equally bizarre parades”.

The historian carries on with his diatribe quoting an unscholarly article claiming to have found a “conclusive link between so-called ‘homosexuality’ and sexual predation targeting children” as well as stating that another inherently flawed and biased study (Tomeo, M. E., Templer, D. L., Anderson, S., & Kotler, D. (2001). Comparative data of childhood adolescence molestation in heterosexual and homosexual persons. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 30, 535–541) has shown that “Many males (around 47%) practicing the fetish [homosexuality] have themselves been victims of male molestation indicating that the pathology is psychologically contagious”.

Screenshots of Dr Gilfillan’s comments are now circulating virally across the internet. The offensive comments were reportedly deleted off the social media website soon after they were posted because of the response they had attracted from concerned members of the LGBT community.

Dr Gilfillan appears to harbor some unhealthy beliefs and prejudices which is worrying considering he is currently in a position of influence within the university.

Thank you to Rachel Kane for bringing this to our attention.

Those wishing to report Dr Mark Gilfillan to the University of Ulster can do so by contacting Professor Jan Jedrzejewski (Dean of the Faculty of Arts) at jp.jedrzejewski@ulster.ac.uk or Professor Ian Thatcher (Head of School of English and History at the Arts and Humanities Research Institute) at id.thatcher@ulster.ac.uk

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