Thrice married, born-again evangelical Chinese actress Lü Liping is facing international boycotts and has been banned from the 2011 Golden Horse Awards, considered the Oscars of Chinese cinema, after posting anti-gay remarks on her microblog last week following the decision in the United States to legalize same-sex marriage in New York. From the Shanghaiist:

It all began when Pastor Feng Wei...of the Victory Baptist Chinese Mission of Rochester said in a tweet on Sunday: "Last night, the New York State Senate legalised same-sex marriage. This is the sixth state in the U.S., and the largest one so far, to do so. May God have mercy on this land which is falling into depravity every day! Even if some day, the law makes it illegal for me to speak against homosexuality, I will continue to preach: Homosexuality is sin. God loves sinners, but he hates sin! Believe in Jesus, gain victory over your sin, and move from Death to Life."

The heretofore unknown pastor in New York might have remained a nobody in mainland China if not for the enthusiastic retweet by Lü Liping, winner of the Best Actress Award at the 2010 Golden Horse Awards, to her 125,000 followers together with the comment: ..."Retweet this, brothers and sisters!"

This was subsequently followed by another retweet of the pastor's posting of Romans 1:26-27, one of several anti-gay "clobber passages" long favoured by Christian traditionalists.

In Sydney, Australia, a protest is planned for outside the theatre of the National Institute of Dramatic Art, where Lü and her equally homophobic born-again husband, Sun Haiying, who himself is twice married, are scheduled to be playing in the drama Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen, on July 9 and 10.

Yet again, religious pollution gives rebirth to homophobes.