Australian rugby’s highest profile player Israel Folau has again courted controversy with a social media comment condemning gay people to “hell”.
Six months after tweeting his opposition to same sex marriage ahead of the marriage equality postal vote last year, Folau said on Instagram that God’s plan for gay people was “HELL… Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God”.
Doesn’t quite fit with Israel Folau’s “I love and respect all people for who they are and their opinions” line from last year. pic.twitter.com/A023XnxRBd
— Ben Coles (@bencoles_) April 3, 2018
The dual international, who has 337,000 followers on Instagram, made the comment in reply to a question from another user on Tuesday, Folau’s 29th birthday.
“@izzyfolau what was gods [sic] plan for gay people??” user Mike Sephton-Poultney said.
“@mike_sephton HELL… Unless they repent of their sins and turn to God,” Folau replied.
The exchange was picked up and shared on Twitter before going viral around the world with famously gay rugby player Gareth Thomas calling him out.
It comes six months after Thomas had used a middle-finger salute emoji to show his contempt for Folau’s opposition to same-sex marriage.
What’s his plan for you then @IzzyFolau pic.twitter.com/tWecB6M3z4
— Gareth Thomas (@gareththomas14) April 4, 2018