UKIP members urge party to stick with ‘gay cure’ candidate in anti-PinkNews petition
A petition has been set up to protest “insidious political correctness” in UKIP – after PinkNews raised the selection of a candidate who advocates ‘gay cure’ therapy.
The UK Independence Party recently selected former ‘Christian Peoples Alliance’ leader Alan Craig to run for a seat on the London Assembly – despite his long homophobic record comparing gay equality advocates to the invading forces of Nazi Germany, claiming that same-sex adoption is ‘child trafficking’, and advocating ‘gay cure’ therapy.
A UKIP spokesperson confirmed to PinkNews yesterday that Mr Craig’s candidacy was “on hold” due to a routine “vetting” procedure, after pressure from the party’s LGBT members and Deputy Chair Suzanne Evans.
However, a new petition has been set up fighting against the “political correctness” apparently fostered by PinkNews.
The petition claims it was written by ‘UKIP Members and Supporters for Free-Speech’ – but appears to have first been circulated on social media by Raheem Kassam, a former key aide to UKIP leader Nigel Farage who is now Editor-in-Chief of right-wing news outlet Breitbart.
It says: “According to PinkNews, UKIP appointed Alan Craig, former leader of the Christian People’s Alliance for the Greater London Authority “super constituency” of South West London at a hustings on Friday evening.
“Richard Hendron, his contender for the candidacy, later resigned in protest, citing Craig’s traditional Christian views. A Change.org petition was then set up to petition the NEC to remove Craig from the candidacy.
“We believe UKIP is a party which stands against insidious Political Correctness and champions conscience and free-speech. We wish for the NEC to uphold these values and ask them not to remove Alan Craig as a candidate.”
One UKIP member wrote wrote: “We want our nation back and taken out of the hands of homosexual narcissists who presently dominate government, the legal system and the mass media.
“The gaystapo have vowed and declared many times to destroy marriage, the family and to use children as so many goods to satisfy their wants.”
A second said: “The reason why British people are afraid to speak out is because government sponsored political correctness is stifling free speech in a way that is reminiscent of Germany in the 1930s.
“In essence political correctness is a sinister process of conditioning people’s minds using a combination of fear and ideological propaganda.
“We have now reached the point in this country where you can actually lose your liberty or job just for speaking your mind. Stalinism is alive an well in the UK in 2016.”
However, the petition has attracted just 160 supporters – many of whom are mocking its premise.
PinkNews last year broke the news that Mr Craig would be speaking at a ‘gay cure’ event, after his selection as a UKIP Parliamentary candidate.
