TikTok preacher spreads dangerous anti-LGBTIQ+ hate speech

An online preacher on TikTok has directly associated LGBTIQ+ people with paedophilia and even claimed that it has been made legal within the LGBTIQ+ community.

MambaOnline was sent a recording of the hate speech video which was live-streamed on 2 January by an individual under the name of Bonolo (@newbono). In it, the woman warned parents that they have been “sleeping” while their children are being put in danger by the LGBTIQ+ community.

She asserted that the “P” that’s sometimes included in the broader LGBTIQ+ acronym stands for paedophiles (it actually represents pansexual individuals) and suggested that the LGBTIQ+ community endorses child sexual abuse.

Bonolo also claimed that in 2006, “they legalised everything of the LGBT. They legalised paedophilia, they legalised sex change”, adding that paedophiles now “have all the rights that every other LGBT has.”

Telling her followers to look up these “facts” online, the woman went on to continue painting LGBTIQ+ people as child predators.

“So if an old man saw your five-year-old, and he’s liking him because he’s gay… What rights do you think your child has? Because in the world of the LGBT there is no age limit,” she stated.

The woman went on to say that “in the straight world there is age, there are boundaries, [but] not there. They don’t have an age in the LGBT, they don’t!”

It’s not clear if Bonolo is formally associated with a particular church. The disturbing video is reflective of the kind of dangerous misinformation and hate speech that is widely spread on social media to vilify the LGBTIQ+ community.

“As a member of the Christian community, who values my faith in God and adheres to the teachings of Christianity, I was deeply disturbed by the misinterpretation of God’s love and grace,” said Siya Hlongwa, Director of isiGqu soMama NPO and the Trans Women Human Rights Defenders Network, who recorded the video.

“It is concerning that some individuals manipulate the message of love, peace, and unity found in the word of God to spread hatred and misinformation,” she told MambaOnline.

Hlongwa called on South Africans and members of the Christian community to work together to foster unity and construct communities that support and stand by one another. “We should be diligent in avoiding the dissemination of false information,” she said.

Bonolo’s hate speech video was not a once-off. In an earlier video seen by MambaOnline, she quipped that speaking out against the LGBTIQ+ community is her “favourite topic”. She also described homosexuality as the “number one sin” and one of the leading “demons”, alongside money and greed, that are “running rampant in the world.”

MambaOnline contacted the TikTok account requesting comment for this article but did not receive a reply.