Man sues Apple for ‘turning him gay’

The man, identified as D. Razumilov, claims a currency known as GayCoin was delivered to an app on his smartphone earlier this year instead of the Bitcoin he had ordered.

Cryptocurrencies are an alternative type of currency that can be traded and used in other financial transactions online.

Razumilov says that 69 GayCoins arrived with a note saying, “Don’t judge until you try”, pushing him “towards homosexuality through manipulation” and causing “moral and mental harm”.

“I thought, indeed, how can I judge something without trying?” he said.

“I decided to try same-sex relationships.”

“I can say after the passage of two months that I’m mired in intimacy with a member of my own sex and can’t get out.

“I have a steady boyfriend and I don’t know how to explain it to my parents.

“My life has been changed for the worse and will never become normal again.”

He is now seeking one million rubles (£12,400) in damages.

His lawyer, Sapizhat Gusnieva, has insisted that the case is serious and that Apple has a “responsibility for their programmes”, despite the transaction having occurred on a third-party app.

Moscow’s Presnensky District Court registered the lawsuit on September 20 and will hear the complaint on October 17.

Same-sex relationships between consenting adults were decriminalised in Russia in 1993, but the issue of gay rights in the country gained international attention in 2013 with the introduction of a law against “gay propaganda”.

The measure officially banned the “promotion of non-traditional lifestyles to minors”, effectively outlawing gay rights activism.

There are currently no laws prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in Russia.

Decriminalisation is also effectively ignored in the governorate of Chechnya, where violent crackdowns by vigilantes groups in recent years have led to dozens of homosexuals being abducted, tortured, and, in at least three cases, killed.

A 2019 poll by the Russian Public Opinion Foundation found that 85 per cent of the Russian public opposed same-sex marriage, while 26 per cent said they would consider disowning a friend or relative who they found out was gay.

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