A Russian man is seeking more than $15,000 in damages from Apple after claiming that the U.S. tech giant drove him to homosexuality, the Govorit Moskva radio station has reported.
The plaintiff, identified as D. Razumilov, alleges that he became “mired in same-sex relationships” this summer after receiving 69 GayCoins on a cryptocurrency payment app he downloaded onto his iPhone in 2017. The unknown sender was said to have included an English-language message that Razumilov interpreted as “don’t judge without trying.”
“I thought, indeed, how can I judge something without trying it? And decided to try same-sex relationships,” Razumilov wrote in a complaint published by Govorit Moskva on Wednesday.
“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,” his complaint continues. “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 accused Apple of “manipulatively pushing me toward homosexuality,” which caused him “moral suffering and harm to mental health,” in his 1 million ruble ($15,300) complaint.
Moscow’s Presnensky District Court registered Razumilov’s lawsuit last Wednesday, according to the court database, and has scheduled an interview for Oct. 17.
