“Pastor” Steven Anderson, of the Faithful Word Baptist Church in Tempe, Ariz., told the Jamaica Gleaner, a Jamaican newspaper, that he and his 14-year-old son were prevented from boarding a plane at Atlanta International Airport to the Jamaican capital of Kingston.
Anderson told the newspaper a representative of Delta Air Lines told him the airline “received a notification from Jamaica that I was not going to be allowed to enter” the country.
The Jamaican government confirmed it had refused to allow Anderson to enter the country.
The decision was made to deny him entry by the chief immigration officer because the pastor’s statements are not conductive to the current climate,” said the Jamaican National Security Ministry .”
Canada, Great Britain and South African have all banned Anderson from entering their countries. Botswana in 2016 deported Anderson after he said during a radio interview the government should kill gays and lesbians and described the victims of the Pulse nightclub massacre as “disgusting homosexuals who the Bible says were worthy of death.”
Jamaica is among the more than 70 countries in which consensual same-sex sexual relations remain criminalized.
“I was kind of surprised that Jamaica would ban me for my views on homosexuality,” he added.
More than 38,000 people signed an online petition calling on the Jamaican government to ban “hate preacher” Anderson
Jamaican born lawyer and LGBT activist Maurice Tomlinson said that he was proud of his home country for banning Anderson. “This is a huge win for our Jamaican sovereignty, our constitutional protections and the safety and security of all Jamaicans.
As for Anderson who once said after the Pulse nightclub shooting that there were “50 less paedophiles in the world”. He he is “planning on just redirecting to a different Caribbean country and I am still going to go forward with his mission efforts.
There are lots of fish in the sea,” Anderson told the Washington Blade’s Micheal K. Lavers.