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The deadly sin of gay pride >> Toronto gay pundit John McKellar leads the charge of the moral minority by JACQUIE CHARLTON
What on Earth, many readers must have wondered, was a homosexual group doing associating their name with an elderly radio preacher who thought that homosexual genital contact was a "destructive disorientation"? The Mirror contacted HOPE national director John McKellar--a man whom Campbell described to us as living "quietly, with dignity, in self-respect" by practising complete chastity--to ask him about it. Mirror: Tell me a bit about yourself and how you came to feel this way. McKellar: Matters of privacy and harassment [with respect to homosexuality] were settled back in the 1970s. Now it's just a matter of very strident, militant sexual politics. It's a matter of looking for special benefits, privileges, special rights, social engineering: trying to upset the traditions, institutions and values upon which Canada was founded. And you know, I think most civilized, successful, happy, healthy and sensible homosexual men and women are ashamed, embarrassed, degraded and disturbed by the whole aspect of gay activism and pride and what it stands for. M: Can you give an example of the harm gay activists are doing? McK: It's when they get into the realm of same-sex parenting. Because now you're leaving the area of consenting adults and entering the realm of innocent children. Opposite-sex parenting has worked for thousands of years. The male and female dynamic is essential to the healthy development of a child. You need flour and water to make bread. M: Are you in a relationship now? McK: No, I'm not. I'm single right now. But that just happens to be my circumstance. M: In an interview last April, Ken Campbell said you were chaste because you didn't agree with the notion of gay sex. Is that true? McK: Well, it depends what you mean by chaste. It's not that I've never done it before. Okay, now this is getting very personal, too, because I'm not really that turned on by anal sex. And that's really the most dangerous part of male homosexual contact. M: Dangerous in what sense? McK: Well, not just from an AIDS point of view, but... anal intercourse is particularly harmful to the receptive partner. It's kind of like... I'm sure you have a pen or a pencil near you right now, right? Would you stick that into your ear canal? M: I'm sorry for being so nosey. It was just Campbell said all this stuff about sodomy in his ad. McK: Yeah, well, I know. And that's a very controversial issue. But I have said publicly--and I really mean this--that if the gay community wanted to really make a mark, really let the world sit up and take notice and give them credit for doing something positive, they would declare a moratorium on anal sex and close down the bath houses until the AIDS epidemic has been cured. I had such contempt when I observed how the activists carved out careers for themselves, making a political circus of this disease and trampling on the rights of the majority. Because the main thrust of their agenda was always to make sure that the number of AIDS sufferers was greatly exaggerated to ensure a continuous flow of funds. They invented the word "homophobic" in the 1980s just to shut people up. This is the first time that a disease has been politicized like that. In 1950s, when the polio epidemic was going around, they closed the swimming pools. M: Who are your friends? Are they people who think like you? McK: I have arguments with my gay friends who are a little to the left of me. I also have been successful in getting a couple of people to cross from the other side over to the more sensible and conservative side. I have one person now who's actually going to New Directions, which is a self-help organization for people who are trying to get their sexual orientation under control. M: Make them go from gay to heterosexual? McK: Yeah. M: How do you go about persuading someone to change their sexual orientation? McK: Well, you sort of go into their background first and find out what caused it. And, in my friend's case, it's very clearly because of childhood abuse. I think that the greatest scientific breakthrough of the 21st century won't be the cure for AIDS, but rather the discovery of the true causes of homosexuality and the ability to reverse their condition. M: So will you take this magic cure when it's invented? McK: Oh, I don't know. I'm pretty disciplined and I can kind of take control of myself. M: Why were you protesting Gay Day in Wonderland? McK: I think it's just an ostentatious display. Their advertisements are saying, "Another day to be proud, Gay Day at Wonderland." And they always say, 'Well, we need one day where we can be ourselves.' Well, I can go to Wonderland with a gay friend and I can be myself. M: What if you were holding hands? McK: Yeah, well, you know, I suppose I could do that on the roller coaster. Everybody always uses that analogy of holding hands. I realize that that's not always possible. But the kind of people, the really hard-core pink triangle activists, they're into a lot more than holding hands. They want to almost fornicate right in front of everybody. We've had problems in our Gay Pride march--I don't know about Montreal--there was one transvestite running around Wonderland Park with just a G-string and her testicles were hanging out. M: But isn't it like a release after being secretive for so long? McK: Let's talk about history a little bit. There have been prominent homosexuals in history who, even though they lived at a time of great societal stigma and persecution, contributed vastly to civilization. And they made their mark without being whiny and sucky and having a hissy fit and constantly demanding therapeutic and legal preferences from the government and the courts. They were rugged, god-fearing individuals. We're talking about people like Michelangelo and Tchaikovsky and Gore Vidal and Frederic the Great. You look at the activists who organized Gay Pride Parade, who are they? Nobody's ever heard of them and nobody ever will hear of them. Pierre Trudeau liberated homosexuals in 1967 by saying that the state has no business in the bedrooms of the nation. But now the bedrooms of the nation are out in the streets, and at Wonderland, and at the schools, everywhere. Oscar Wilde would be ashamed today at the stuff that's going on. M: But if he could avoid going to jail for it? McK: Well, that's fine. But a movement has to know its beginnings and its endings. It has to have parameters. I don't want everybody to go back in the closet. But now everyone has a megaphone and shouts out, "I'm queer, I'm here, so stick it in your ear." M: What did you do on Pride Day in Toronto? McK: I really didn't do anything. I just went home and picked strawberries.
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The Toronto-based Homosexuals Against Pride Extremism (HOPE) achieved a measure of national fame last April when its name appeared in a now-infamous, full-page open letter in the Globe and Mail. The letter, written and paid for by an Ontario radio preacher named Ken Campbell, was a rambling, Bible-quoting, and venomously homophobic rant against the Supreme Court for its decision on Delwin Vriend, the Alberta teacher fired from his job when he admitted he was gay.