On the 8th of June, 2015 the Lithuanian musician Ten Walls has been dropped from several events after comparing homosexuality to pedophilia.

The Lithuanian producer and musician issued an apology after he posted the comments on “Facebook”, which referred to LGBT* people as people of a “different breed”.

Ten Walls, real name Marijus Adomaitis, has since deleted the posts from “Facebook“, but not before they were picked up by several publications.

“I remember producing music for one Lithuanian musician, who tried to wash my brain that I don’t need to be so conservative and intolerant about them,” he began. “When I asked him ‘what would you do if you realized that your 16-year-old son’s browny (anus) is ripped by his boyfriend?’ Well he was silent.”

He also said that, in “the good 90s … these people of different breed where [sic] fixed,” and went on to compare homosexuality with pedophilia. “One of my first gigs in Ireland, on my way to [my] hotel I saw a church with a fence decorated with hundreds of baby shoes. Naturally I wondered why? Unfortunately a priest’s lie for many years was uncovered when children were massively raped. Unfortunately the people of other breed continue to do it and everyone knows it but does nothing.”

The musician has since issued an apology which read: “I want to apologize for the former post in my account. I am really sorry about its insulting content which does not reflect my true opinion. I hope this misunderstanding will not provoke any more thoughts and opinions. Peace.”

But many doubted the sincerity of his apology. The Policy Coordinator (Human Rights) of the national LGBT* rights organization LGL Tomas Vytautas Raskevičius told The Stream: “The apology seems fake because it doesn’t indicate that Ten Walls is changing his views. He just apologised for offending some people but he didn’t explain why he wrote those things in the first place”.

After performing at Field Day over the weekend, the musician has been dropped from Pitch festival and Creamfields. Fort Romeau also dropped out of supporting Ten Walls at Koko in November writing on “Facebook”: “It’s easy to romanticize electronic music culture and imagine it as a bastion of social liberalism and progressive ideology. “But the reality is that it simply reflects the larger social context where homophobia and (particularly) sexism are normalized and worse, codified into law”.

But others took to social media to support Ten Walls. Facebook group “Support Ten Walls” wants people to set their ringtone to the hit “Walking with Elephants.” The group already has 4,000 likes. “Je Suis Ten Walls” has been circulating online as well.

The national LGBT* rights organization LGL appreciates the apologies given by Walking with Elephants star but wants to remind that hate speech is a form of hate crime and if coming from a famous and established person, unfortunately tends to have a even major impact on the public opinion.