A mystery "bigot" has penned some colourful hate mail to the organiser of a Wollongong marriage equality vigil, blaming the floods, snow storms and the world's ills in general on the increasing acceptance of same-sex marriage.
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The first hand-addressed envelope, which contains biblical leaflets and typed letters, arrived at Robert Kandalaft’s Corrimal hair salon door a few days after the Orlando shooting vigil.
''When I got the second letter, it creeped me out a bit. It always plays in the back of your mind, because they found my place of work.''
“The first one came just after the vigil, and then the next arrived a few days later,” he said.
“At first I laughed, and threw the first letter away, but everyone was like ‘well, it starts with a letter and then they chuck a brick in your window’.”
“Then when I got the second letter, it creeped me out a bit. It always plays in the back of your mind, because they found my place of work.”
The letter, which says “Rob, Jesus loves you” and is oddly signed “A Bigot”, says events such as last month’s east coast low, as well as Anna Bligh, Kevin Rudd and Barry O’Farrell’s demise were due to the acceptance of “gay unions”.
It also quotes various bible passages and indicates that this will be the “last generation”.
Mr Kandalaft said he believed he was being targeted because he was the president of Unity Wollongong and helped organise the vigil, which was held at West Wollongong’s St Therese Catholic Primary School.
Initially organised as a protest rally against an anti marriage equality talk scheduled at the school, it became a vigil when Wollongong bishop Peter Ingham cancelled the talk in the wake of the Florida massacre.
Mr Kandalaft said he was surprised to receive the letter, as the vigil had promoted a new level of understanding between the Catholic church and the LGBTQI community.
“I don’t think this is from the church, it’s probably just someone who wants to twist their message to target me. But everyone says how ISIS is a splinter group of Islam, so is this just an extremist part of Christianity?” he said.
The hairdresser was first hesitant about speaking out about the letter, but decided he “will not be a victim”.
“I thought, you know what, this is not acceptable,” he said. “This is 2016, I won’t live my life in fear. I’m a leader in my community and it’s up to me to stand up against this type of intimidation.”