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Vegan Facebook Group Condemned After Claiming ‘Environmental Pollutants’ Turn People Gay

Pembrokeshire Vegan Organic group equated being gay or transgender to a “sexual development disorder.”
Photo via Pembrokeshire Vegan Organic Facebook / Flickr user Ryan Adams

A Welsh vegan Facebook group has received widespread criticism after claiming that being gay or trans is the result of environmental pollutants.

Pembrokeshire Vegan Organic group, which posits itself as helping to “promote awareness of a vegan and organic plant-based diet and lifestyle option,” posted the message on its Facebook page yesterday evening, claiming that being gay or trans constituted a “sexual development disorder,” and was caused by “environmental pollutants and media and education manipulation.”

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“The promotion of homosexuality and gender at children tries to promote the view that transgender and homosexuality are natural and healthy lifestyle choices,” the post continues, “which is not true.”

The group also claimed that “there is nothing natural or healthy about wanting to be the opposite from what we are born. Transgender is an environmental developmental disorder that is being promoted as natural and normal.”

Photo via Facebook.

According to reporting by The Independent, the offensive Facebook post has since been deleted, but responses can be still be read on the social media site. Many vegans have been giving the page one-star reviews, condemning the comment as “ridiculous and laughable.”

One Facebook user posted: “As a Vegan, I wanted to express with the utmost sincerity that the wider community shouldn’t be judged by the actions, or associated with the homophobic, transphobic pseudoscientific bullshit that Pembrokeshire [have] come out with.”

“From the bottom of my heart,” they continued, “fuck these guys.’

However, Pembrokeshire Vegan Organic appears to be maintaining its transphobic and homophobic stance. Responding to a comment that accused the group of “spouting homophobic and transphobic rubbish,” an admin replied, claiming that the condemned post was “stating the truth that sexual development is affected by environmental pollutants.”

Dominika Piasecka, a spokeswoman for The Vegan Society, told MUNCHIES, “The view of an individual vegan does not represent how the vegan community as a whole feels on a particular issue.”

“It’s important to note that veganism is based on kindness and compassion,” she continued, “and the backlash the Facebook page has received shows that the vast majority of vegans disagree with the comments made.”