Homophobic lecturer suspended

By Marc Shoffman • March 27, 2006 - 0:00

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The university lecturer at the centre of racist, homophobic and misogynistic comments, has been suspended pending disciplinary action.

Dr Frank Ellis, an academic at the University of Leeds, was blasted by students and minority groups last week after telling the student magazine that homosexuality is wrong and should be "weeded out of theological seminaries and that "there is a persistent gap in average black and white average IQ."

University officials released a statement which said, "The University of Leeds has begun disciplinary proceedings against Dr Frank Ellis, a lecturer in Russian and Slavonic Studies."

Although details of the process must remain confidential,the University of Leeds secretary, Roger Gair, said three issues are being investigated, "In publicising his personal views on race and other matters, Dr Ellis has acted in breach of our equality and diversity.

"The second issue is that, in publicising his personal views on race, Dr Ellis has recklessly jeopardised the fulfilment of the university's obligations under the Race Relations (Amendment) Act 2000. As a public body, the university is required under that Act to promote good relations between people of different racial groups."

He added that the professor had refused to apologise for any distress caused by the remarks.

Dr Ellis, a British National Party affiliate told the Leeds Student, "When homosexuals, or gay rights activists as they like to call themselves, want to change the law to compel to people to accept homosexual and heterosexual are one and the same things or just variations on a theme, that is when I feel I have to take a stand against them."

The professor, who checked and approved the interview before it was published, also labelled AIDs as a gay disease, he said: "It's the drugs they take as well which is a big problem, isn't it?"

"They take a lot of amphetamines, and nitrate based drugs to increase their sort of erotic performance and so on. And also the very mechanics of buggery as well, I mean it's one of the effective ways , maybe the most effective way, of spreading AIDS, is it not? … I mean, how anybody can do that in an age now, particularly knowing the threat of AIDS as well is just beyond me."

The Leeds Student Union called the academic "dangerous to the unity of students"

The disciplinary process is expected to take a couple of months.

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