An angry Russian man has filed a lawsuit against Apple for moral harm, claiming that an iPhone app had turned him gay.
The man who goes by D. Razumilov, filed a case on September 20, in a Moscow court demanding for RUB 1 million ($15,000) compensation from Apple for "turning him gay." The man said that he ordered for Bitcoin but instead got another cryptocurrency called "GayCoin."
According to The Moscow Times, Razumilov received 69 units of GayCoins with a note saying, "Don't judge until you try,"
"I thought, indeed, how can I judge something without trying it? And indeed to try same-sex relationships," Razumilov said in a complaint published by Govorit Moskva.
"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," he said. "I have a steady boyfriend and I don't know how to explain it to my parents. After receiving the aforementioned message, my life has changed for the worse and will never be normal again."
Razumilov claims that his iPhone is responsible for the alleged gay conversion and is prepared to argue his case in court.
In the lawsuit, Razumilov says Apple has caused him "moral suffering and harm to mental health," due to "manipulative pushing me towards homosexuality."
His lawyer, Sapizhat Gusnieva says that the case is "serious," telling AFP that her client was "scared, he suffered."
Gusnieva said the US tech giant "has a responsibility for their programmes" despite the alledged exchange taking place on a third-party app.
Apple, the maker of iPhones doesn't have a stake in the GayCoin, which is currently valued at less than two cents.
Moscow in 2013 introduced a law against "gay propaganda" which officially bans the "promotion of non-traditional lifestyles to minors" but in effect outlaws LGBT activism.
It is a popular belief and concept that heterosexual people are regularly recruited and converted into "the gay lifestyle". For example, in the US, the notion was made popular by singer and anti-gay activist Anita Bryant in 1977 who claimed "homosexuals cannot reproduce, so they must recruit."
Apple's representatives in Russia didn't immediately respond to request for comment.