Rylan asks CBB’s Winston McKenzie: ‘Shouldn’t I be allowed to adopt?’
Presenter Rylan Clark has confronted CBB’s Winston McKenzie over comments he made against gay adoption.
McKenzie, the English Democrats’ candidate for London mayor was evicted from the Celebrity Big Brother house last night – following a string of homophobic comments.
The former boxer, who until last year was a regional leader and Parliamentary candidate for the UK Indepndence Party, this week entered the Channel 5 reality show.
He attracted controversy over a string of homophobic comments in the house, claiming in his entry video: “I could cope with a homosexual in the house. I guess I’ll just have to stand with my back against a brick wall all the time.”
However, fellow housemate Angie Bowie – the bisexual ex-wife of David Bowie – was fuming after finding out as part of a task that McKenzie had claimed same-sex parenting is “child abuse”.
Since leaving the house, McKenzie has said he can’t remember making the comments.
Speaking to Rylan, after already having been confronted by presenter Emma Willis earlier in the evening, McKenzie tried to derail any conversation on the comments.
“Before we go any further, you’re one of the good presenters around, regardless of how you live your life – I’m not interested,” he said.
“All I know is, what I’ve seen of you and how you present yourself, you make good television. I’m a fan.”
Going on, he said: “What I found as a politician is that you can’t. If people… make their mind that they support you, then that’s what they’re going to do. In terms of getting them on my side, we live in this country in what we call a democracy, and it’s fantastic – the greatest in the world.
“As a politician, I’m able to have the knowledge and understanding how other countries formulate themselves and how they run – and we’re still Great Britain. England is fantastic.”
However Rylan, given the chance, confronted McKenzie over the adoption comments, asking: “Am I allowed to adopt?”
“It’s very emotive, you know,” McKenzie responded.
“I’m not a people hater, and I noticed that in the house, the two guys – Christopher and John – I got on better with them than anyone else.”
Continuing, he said gay adoption “wouldn’t upset me. I just have that thought. I’ve grown up that way. I’ve come up that way.
“If that’s what you want to do, if you want to live your life according to whatever, then feel free to do that. I’m not one of these politicians who are here to campaign against you.”
After Rylan said he and his husband plan to adopt, McKenzie said: “We live in a democracy. It’d be up to the people. Why would I want to change it?
“I wouldn’t change it. What I’m grateful is, I live as a black Englishman in England, and the simple opportunity to express my thoughts and feelings isn’t being pushed under the carpet.
“Rylan, I’ll clap you myself and congratulate you because that’s what it’s all about.”
McKenzie was booed by the audience as he left the house. Hundreds of complaints were lodged over his appearance on the show.
In complaints seen by PinkNews, a number of viewers question the decision to put McKenzie in the house despite having already made homophobic comments in a pre-recorded interview. Others insist that the decision amounts to a failure to safeguard the other housemates.
McKenzie was also allowed by producers to wear the badge of the far-right English Democrats party on his way into the house.
Broadcast watchdog Ofcom says it is currently evaluating the complaints.
McKenzie is currently a member of the far-right English Democrats party. A party leader has defended McKenzie – by claiming that Muslim CBB housemates would murder gay people.
The UK Independence Party previously claimed to have “sacked” McKenzie after he insisted that same-sex adoption is child abuse – but despite this supposed “sacking” the party went on to quietly select him to run for Parliament again last year.
Senior members of UKIP insist they are now “glad to be rid” of McKenzie.
