A 25-year-old student is planning to sue a garden and farming supplies centre in Friesland after it rejected him for an internship because he is gay.

Bas van der Meer had been through two interviews with the company, A. Th. De Boer, when he received an email saying he is not welcome.

‘As nowhere in God’s word does he approve of you living out your sexual orientation… we cannot take you on,’ the email is quoted as saying by the AD.

The email came after the company had spotted a photograph of Van der Meer with his boyfriend on Facebook.

Van der Meer, who studies Small Business & Retail Management, told the paper he will definitely take legal action against the company, which has so far declined to comment.

On his Facebook page, Van der Meer said that being turned down for the job showed that the acceptance of homosexuality still has a long way to go. The statement had been ‘liked’ almost 60,000 times by Friday afternoon.

Some 58% of orthodox Protestants in the Netherlands think homosexuality is wrong, making them the most anti-gay group in the country, according to research from the government’s socio-cultural think-tank SCP at the end of last year.