User talk:Chromosomatic/sandbox

City Revival Church homophobia controversy
The City Revival Church controversy started on July 22, when City Revival Church uploaded a video on their social media pages. Jaime Wong, the founder of City Revival Church and Joanna Theng, a 21 year old Singaporean actress, found themselves mired in a heated debate where they were criticized for condemning and demonizing the LGBTQ+ community.

The Video
The video, hosted by Wong and Theng, touched on the purpose of pride. They stated that the pride parade is a manifestation of Satan out of spite for God who 'opposes the proud and gives grace to the humble'. The 6 color pride flag is evidence of Satan's influence as 'the mark of the beast is the number 666'. According to Theng, pride marches are one of the ways in which Satan has 'influenced the physical realm to insult and show contempt for God by distorting His true symbol(rainbow) of love and peace'.

Backlash
Response by netizens on platforms such as Instagram and Reddit highlighted the homophobic and irrational arguments made in the video. The incident has been reported in multiple news outlets including PinkNews, Mothership, The Independent and more.

Poor understanding of the LGBTQ+ community by Theng and Joanna was apparent to many. Some pointed out that the pride flag originally had 8 colors. Others pointed out that the pride parade started out as a protest against the violation of human rights and police raids at Stonewall Inn.

Response
Theng, a student of Wee Kim Wee School of Communication and Information, defended herself on Instagram saying:

″I have never hated and never will hate on anyone in the LGBTQ+ community in my midst. On the contrary, I have encountered and befriended many LGBTQ+ people and am always eagerr to see their views and hear their stories. Many of them inspire me in their own way. Disagreeing with an act does not mean I do not love a person. I could disagree with my fmaily on an issue and we could still love each other to bits. That being said it would mean a lot if you could speak reasonably and objectively with me, so that we do not make this a personal attack thing but rather a mature conversation where we can discuss our opposing views together. :) I'd really appreciate that, thank you so much".

Her response drew more flak as people saw similarities to the 'Some of my friends are black' defense. Users also pointed out how the entire video was an attack on the LGBTQ+ community.

Theng proceeded to take a 3 week hiatus from Instagram.

Jaime Wong, an 'ex gay' person who has featured on the controversial TrueLove.is website, posted an apology video. She explained that she sympathized with the hurt of the LGBTQ+ community caused by the video as 'I was one of you'. No statements made in the original video were retracted. Chromosomatic (talk) 09:56, 23 August 2020 (UTC)