[Article] "Gays are perverts with reprobate minds", says Northern Ireland councillor

http://uk.gay.com/headlines/5839


A Northern Ireland councillor has spoken out against government plans to give lesbians, gays and transsexuals more rights, claiming they are "perverts" with "reprobate minds".

Bert Johnston, the Democratic Unionist Party councillor for Fermanagh made his feelings clear in a letter to Prime Minister Tony Blair earlier this week in response to government proposals, including the Gender Recognition Bill.

The Bill will give more rights to transsexuals and allow them to be recognised by the gender they believe they are, rather than the physical form they have.

But Johnston claims the bill will usher in an era of "debauchery" and is keen to ensure that Northern Ireland does not introduce similar legislation.

“I am totally against the Bill as a moral issue. I don’t think God made a mistake when he made us male and female and these people who call themselves gays and the like are essentially perverts,” local newspaper the Impartial Reporter quotes Councillor Johnston as writing.

“I believe their problems exist only in their minds. It is not a biological or medical condition they suffer from. It is related - and I refer to Romans Chapter I - to the fact that the people who are most often this way inclined are mostly Godless people with reprobate minds,” he added.

Johnston says he was moved to comment on the bill after receiving warnings from the Christian Institute. He said that his Christian beliefs mean he cannot back such proposals. At present, the bill applies to England and Wales, although Johnston believes his views will be supported by others across Northern Ireland.

“I believe this bill should not be passed because, in the opinion of many, it is a retrograde move to put our beloved United Kingdom back into the dark ages of debauchery and it smacks of the creature’s law rather than of the Creator.”

“I would be surprised if there was any Northern Ireland MP who would back this Bill,” he told the newspaper.

“I think a lot of the people here still believe in the Bible and still have old values. They don’t advocate changes that might mean making a retrograde step.”

This is not the first time a councillor has made outspoken comments against LGBT rights. Last December Trowbridge Lib Dem councillor Ben Biddulph was forced to resign, after he told a newspaper that "gays are paedophiles", while Whitton councillor Hilary dance was forced to apologise, after she told a local newspaper that "God did not originally make two men to love and complement each other, neither did he create two women to love and complement each other."

Her comments sparked particular outrage because she heads the Richmond upon Thames Council's health overview and scrutiny committee. Some gay rights groups feared her opinions could colour how the committee deals with lesbian and gay specific health problems.