Gay hate preacher attacks Steps star
The controversial fundamentalist Christian Stephen Green has compared Steps singer H to mass murderer Jeffrey Dahmer.
Green, who is notorious for his protests at gay Pride events, was taking part in BBC Wales current affairs programme, Week In, Week Out.
While being interviewed by H, also known as Ian Watkins, Green called him vile and said he would pray for him.
Watkins publicly came out in January 2007 just before entering the Celebrity Big Brother house.
He revealed that he came out to his bandmates and family when he was 21, but was fearful of the reaction of fans and local people in his home village of Cwmparc in the Rhondda Valley.
Stephen Green is best-known as the head of anti-gay lobby group Christian Voice.
In 2006 he was cleared of public order charges after handing out anti-gay leaflets at Cardiff Mardi Gras.
Last year he protested at both London and Brighton Pride.
“Christian Voice is a prophetic ministry in the sense that we attempt, with God’s grace, to analyse current events in the light of scripture, proclaim God’s word to those in public life and provide the information which Christians need in order to pray with the mind of God in these dark days,” the group states on its website.
H said after being verbally attacked by the bearded preacher:
“I don’t know how people like him can justify their beliefs. I think men like him are dangerous.”
Steps were a manufactured pop act, popular with children and some gay men in the late 1990s.
Along with bandmates Claire Richards, Lee Latchford Evans, Lisa Scott-Lee and Faye Tozer, Watkins had a string of hits.