UKIP defends defection of former Christian leader who blames ‘Gaystapo’ for equal marriage
UKIP has defended its acceptance of a former Christian party leader who warned that same-sex marriage amounts to “child abuse”.
Former Christian Peoples Alliance leader Alan Craig, who is notorious for his extreme anti-gay views, announced earlier this week that he would join the United Kingdom Independence Party.
The ex-councillor recently claimed same-sex marriage is a “democratic disgrace”, and described it as “social vandalism by the Tory Bullingdon boys”.
A UKIP spokesperson told Huffington Post: “We’re not prejudiced against traditional, old-school Christians just as we’re not against homosexual people.
“I’m very wary of joining in a witch-hunt against somebody who holds those views, that the vast majority of the world would also hold.
“It’s not about tolerance, it’s not about tolerating other people’s points of view. It’s actually about dominating, control and refusing to allow anybody else to have a point of view.”
In a post published earlier this year, titled ‘Gay marriage and child abuse’, the former Christian Peoples Alliance leader mocked the wedding announcement of gay parents Barrie and Tony Drewitt-Barlow.
“The problem is that all gay marriages are a counterfeit,” Mr Craig wrote. “According to the government and unlike conventional marriages, gay marriages cannot be consummated and adultery cannot be reason for divorce. So same-sex partners in a gay marriage are free to play the field whereas husbands and wives in a real marriage promise to be faithful ’til death us do part’.
“By firmly bolting a counterfeit on to the hallowed institution of marriage, parliament has diluted, distorted and, in the end, dismantled an invaluable social institution. And it is the nation’s children, who need stability, commitment and faithfulness at home to best flourish, who will suffer.”
Mr Craig, an ex-councillor for the London Borough of Newham, was nominated for Stonewall’s ‘Bigot of the Year’ award in 2012.
The year before he caused outrage by comparing gay equality advocates to the invading forces of Nazi Germany, dubbing them the “Gaystapo”.
