Ex-gay Canadian Bill Whatcott is a fringe candidate for mayor and former prostitute who believes he is qualified to police the morals of Edmonton, Alberta, and Regina, Saskatchewan.
But if he listened to some potential allies at Exodus, he might reconsider both his candidacy and his warlike attitude toward same-sex-attracted persons.
You see… how shall we say this…. Whatcott’s moral concern is severely compromised by a preoccupation with the human excretory system. According to Whatcott (via the Winnipeg Sun):
Homosexuality is killing young men with diseases like anal warts, anal gonorrhoea and anal cancer — you’re not going to get that living the lifestyle of a Ukrainian. I don’t expect people to like me but I’ve got supporters, especially in church circles. If you don’t like me don’t vote for me.
Whatcott is sufficiently preoccupied with homosexuality — and authoritarian in his approach — that he has made it the centerpiece of his mayoral campaign in Edmonton. Here, allegedly, is the opening paragraph of his campaign platform:
As your mayor Bill Whatcott is committed to protecting Edmontonions from homofascism. Bill Whatcott loves children and he loves truth. He believes children have the God given right to have a mother and father and not have to be indoctrinated into embracing homosexuality by our public schools and media. […] Homosexuality is wrong and as your Mayor, Bill Whatcott is committed to denouncing homosexuality, warning young people about the consequences of indulging in the practice and calling on those trapped in the homosexual lifestyle to repentance, forgiveness and healing through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.
Whatcott admits to homosexual prostitution as a teenager, but claims to have repented and found God. The activist has since busied himself in political activities that include protesting against Regina’s Gay Pride parade by marching with a placard that read “Bear Bottomed Pitifuls are Celebrating buggery in Regina! God Help Us!” When quizzed about the violent treatment of gays at a Moscow parade this year, Whatcott recently wrote:
What was so brutal about the treatment homosexuals received when they wanted to impose their perversion on Russia? Actually most of the marchers weren’t even native to Russia. They were roughed up a little bit, had eggs thrown at them, were arrrested and sent back home (Holland, Germany, etc…) with their assless chaps covered. This is fine by me. As mayor I will offer a free vacation to Edmonton for any Russian Orthodox who wants to do likewise here….
His mayoral campaign literature features mostly-nude photos (via Pam Spaulding, NSFW) that have been digitally altered to depict the current mayor.
According to Wikipedia, Whatcott has traveled among Canadian cities, placing graphically explicit fliers in mailboxes and staging unauthorized and uncivil protests.
Whatcott’s methods of protest have drawn police attention. He has been arrested six times in Saskatchewan but never convicted of a crime. He has also been arrested once in the United States and 20 times in Ontario, and twice successfully prosecuted for violating security zones around abortion clinics. He was fined $17,500 (Canadian) in Saskatchewan for distributing hate literature, and is under investigation by Edmonton police for similar concerns. (Free speech is not constitutionally guaranteed in Canada.) In 2005, Whatcott’s nursing license was suspended for 45 days and he was fined $15,000 after he intimidated Planned Parenthood workers and patients, accusing them of being “murderers, abortionists and disseminators of AIDS.”
Homosexuality has little or nothing to do with excretory organs, abortion, or “lifestyle,” of course. And local officials, realizing this, have generally opted to let Whatcott’s campaign publicly foam at the mouth in order to expose “what a cowboy this guy really is.”
[Councillor Michael] Phair called Whatcott’s comments ‘distasteful’ and his campaign ‘amateur,’ as it fails to address any local issues such as infrastructure or transit. ‘And as a gay politician I can tell you voters don’t care about your sexual orientation. They care about paved roads, improved traffic flow and snow removal. And they don’t want someone who is intolerant.
Who da thunkit? Could it be? Whatcott — a politician who runs a campaign based on fear rather than the issues.
Whatcott is not affiliated with Exodus International. However, Wendy Gritter is. She is the Exodus regional representative for Canada and the executive director of New Direction for Life Ministries in Toronto. Gritter told Ex-Gay Watch:
It saddens me that an individual who identifies as a follower of Christ would fail to reflect the unconditional love of God for the world. There is no question in my mind that the heart of Christ is for the just and respectful treatment of all people — most especially by those who bear His name. The Christian community must engage those who hold divergent views with the love and kindness that is consistent with the good news of the Gospel.
I couldn’t agree more.
Hat tip: Towleroad
And before I get offended…maybe someone could help me understand the phrase:
Where is the negative connotation of being a cowboy coming from? From another guy who is gay? Does Mr. Billet understand his neighbors in Calgary offers a splendid example of cowboys when they host that IGRA-sanctioned rodeo each July. Read the mission statement at the website.
No…cowboys (gay or otherwise) most likely do not claim Mr. Whatcott as one of them.
“Bear Bottomed Pitifuls are Celebrating buggery in Regina! God Help Us!”
I think the sign was “Bare Bottomed…”
I live in Toronto and have had experience with Wendy Gritter, the Exodus leader here. She talks a good line about being a kind and respectful Christian, but her attacks on gay people are no different than that of Exodus in general.
Read the transcript of her contribution to the Listenup T.V. programme on gay marriage. https://www.listenuptv.com/programs/061210samesex.shtml. Both the host of this right-wing religious programme as well as the guests knew that their desire to reopen the debate on gay marriage in Canada were not going to be met. They knew that in Canada, gay marriage was likely here to stay.
However, instead of offering any kind of bridge to her opponents, (which she professes she wants other people to do), she engages in the same kind of attack that Exodus is long known for.
The theme of the programme is ” The sky is falling on the rights of children”. Gritter uses her ‘expertise’ to twists an inoccuous study of the sexuality of teenagers to conclude that while gay marriage may benefit three to four percent of gay people, it places twenty five percent of children, (earlier she refers to them as “our children”), at risk.
From her typical “us” and “them, Exodus scenario, we realize that gay marriages do not involve or benefit straight parents or family members who also consider gay marriage a blessing. It will also not involve children who are already being raised by gay people. It’s all about ‘them’.
Her views of gay people who are not seeking ‘treatment’ are no different from Exodus itself. I just finished reading one of her organizations recommended texts, “Setting Love in Order: Hope and Healing For The Homosexual”, by Mario Bergner, and I just learned that to her, gay people are all still mentally sick.
On page 83, I just learned that “The lesbians’ detachment from their source of being has not only caused intense anxiety, but also alienation from their primary relationship and, therefore, their means for acquiring a healthy gender identity. From early on in childhood, as a result of this anxiety, they may be carrying anxious tension in their genitals.”
On page 114, I learned that “The ambivalent coexistence of both love and hate is a central element of homosexual neurosis”. This explains why gay ‘relationships’ are shallow, self-indulgent, sick, delusional, self-destructive, non-monagamous, primarily sexual, and so on.
From page 120, I learn that the homosexual neurosis is closely associated with paranoia. “In today’s homosexual community [anti-gay] persecution has wrought a generalized paranoia [among homosexuals], which is manifested by militant gays and lesbians crying loudly for their rights. Militant gay groups lobby government officials with a litigious and argumentative expertise unmatched by any other special interest group. Both a sense of being persecuted and a fighting posture are hallmarks of homosexual paranoia.” And on and on. To her, it’s not about aquiring the same civil rights as other, it’s all just a manifestation of our ‘disease’.
The book is filled with this sort of stuff.
If you can reconcile this ugly world view of gay people with the generous Christian that Wendy Gritter promotes herself to be, good luck. I honestly can not. Wanting to engage a person who promotes views like this, to me, is on par with having a Jewish desire to exchange views with a hollocaust denyer. I honestly do not see the difference.
Don Baxter
I lived in Calgary Alberta for a while. Much of the area is as wacky as parts of the U.S. south.
The former Conservative Party leader Stockwell Day, who believed that dinosaurs and people co-existed (and was mocked for believing that “The Flintstones” is a documentary) was from nearby Red Deer.
This guy won’t get far in Edmonton (aka “Redmonton). It isn’t as liberal as Montréal or Vancouver, but it’s a live and let live place.
Good grief, do you have some reference on that? I don’t doubt you, but it’s pretty wild – and important if serious.
David, I don’t think toujoursdan meant that Stockwell Day literally believed that “The Flintstones” is a documentary. Rather, since he believes that dinosaurs and people co-existed, people would mock him by saying that he probably thought the Flintstones was a documentary.
lol, thanks Skemono – not sure if I was being gullible, naive or just silly.
Thanks Skemono. Perhaps I was unclear. Anyway, the dinosaur thing dogged and torpedoed his campaign. Even his press corp made fun of him.
From the BBC:
And on national TV he was further mocked by a Liberal Party critic who pulled out a Barney doll and said that “this was the only dinosaur ever to be on Earth with humans”.
He also wanted to be able to have national referenda on any petition that got the signatures of 3% of the population. (It was believed he would use this to outlaw abortion or turn back the clock on gay rights.) So one of our comedians started a petition to legally change his name Stockwell Day, to Doris Day.
This stuff, on the national scene, turns people into laughingstocks but he and others like him have a huge fan base in rural Alberta and BC. He is still an MP and Minister for Public Safety.