Green councillors in Brighton and Hove, a city renowned as the 'gay capital' of England, have condemned comments by a right-wing Conservative councillor from Hove who has admitted to branding all gay men as "paedophiles" and who said he opposed the recent flying of the rainbow flag from Brighton and Hove City Council to commemorate victims of homophobia because homosexuality is an "unnatural act".
According to reports in Brighton and Hove newspaper The Argus on Saturday 20 May, Tory councillor Peter Willows admitted that he may have made the paedophiles remark at a mayoral drinks reception last week but that he was "drunk". He also wrote a letter to the paper criticising the city council for agreeing to fly the rainbow flag to mark the International Day against Homophobia (IDAHO) on 17 May, according to the Argus, asking: "Why should any country have to fly a flag because of men sleeping together? And also women sleeping together to have sex?".
Gay Green councillor Simon Williams said: "As a co-proposer of the recent successful motion in the city council to fly the rainbow flag for the International Day Against Homophobia on 17 May, I think it's very sad that a city councillor in this gay friendly city could object to a day that commemorates innocent victims of violence and prejudice and to make such an offensive slur on gay men.
"Councillor Willows is obviously entitled to disapprove of homosexuality but to object to a day that commemorates innocent people who have been murdered or suffered violence just because of their sexuality is totally inappropriate behaviour. I'm pleased that Cllr Willows has apologised for the comments and his Tory colleagues are distancing themselves from his remarks.
"However the LGBT community should not pay too much attention to these fringe views and we need to be careful to avoid giving them undue attention in the wider media by hysterical and adversarial counter-comments."
Subscribe to the news
