Gay activists launch $104 million suit against Christian for preaching at Pride Parade
While ‘tolerance’ and ‘diversity’ are the
rallying cry of the homosexual movement, the words appear not to apply to
Christians with an unconventional message. Christians led by Canadian activist
Bill Whatcott were slapped with a $104-million legal threat last week after
infiltrating Toronto’s Gay Pride Parade in July dressed as “gay zombies” in
green skintight suits to hand out info packets about the physical and spiritual
dangers of homosexual practices.
Former Ontario MPP George Smitherman, the
province’s first openly gay provincial representative as well first openly gay
cabinet minister, told Daily Xtra that he joined the lawsuit to “do all we can
to stamp this hateful individual out.”
Jim Hughes, president of Campaign Life
Coalition, has also received a
notice of threatened legal action for
his organization’s supposed publishing of the original report on
Whatcott’s activities and for linking to the “offensive literature” that was
distributed at the Pride Parade. The notice demands that Campaign Life
Coalition remove the original news report or at least remove the link to the
Whatcott blog. However, contrary to the letter’s claim, Campaign Life Coalition
does not operate LifeSiteNews, which is a separately incorporated and managed
organization.
Last month half-a-dozen Christians led by
Whatcott paid the $100 fee to the Toronto Pride Parade organizers to register
"Gay Zombies Cannabis Consumers Association" so that they could move
more easily along the parade route to deliver their message.
While recipients thought they were being
handed free condoms and sex tips they were actually receiving a pamphlet that
showed graphic images of diseases associated with same-sex behaviors, including
anal warts and AIDS.
“I asked them if they wanted ‘Zombie safe
sex. Everyone loved it. But,
if you try to give out a Gospel pamphlet, they swear at you and throw slushies
on your forehead. But, give them some wackadoddle thing that looks like a
condom, and they really can’t grab it fast enough. I had three thousand out in
20 minutes,” he said.
One part of the pamphlet stated: “Natural law
is clear, homosexuality is incompatible with human nature. Disease, death and
confusion are the sad and sordid realities of the homosexual lifestyle. The
‘Gay Zombies’ are concerned about the spiritual, psychological and physical
welfare of all potential homosexual pride attendees, so we want to give you
this accurate information and encourage you to abstain from the homosexuality.”
Whatcott said that the group’s goal in
participating in the event was twofold: First, to be a prophetic and
unambiguous witness against the unfettered celebration of homosexuality, and
second, to offer people caught up in the same-sex lifestyle a way out through a
call to repent and to turn to Jesus Christ to be saved.
“Our delivery was a bit creative, but, we wanted to give people this message
because it is truthful.”
Gay lawyer Douglas Elliott of Cambridge LLP —
who is representing Smitherman, Christopher Hudspeth, a gay owner of a Toronto
gay bar, as well as the estimated 500,000 marchers in the parade and the
estimated 9,000 individuals who “received or otherwise observed” one of
Whatcott’s pamphlets — disagrees.
“The conduct amounted to reckless and wanton
disregard for the health of the Recipients. In this context, [Whatcott’s]
behavior amounted to flagrant and outrageous behaviour that was intended to
harm the Recipient class,” Elliott argued in the August 11 Statement of Claim.
Elliott called Whatcott’s pamphlets
“offensive” since they contained “derogatory and hateful statements” as well as
“falsehoods.” He added that Whatcott’s statements in the pamphlet where he
linked homosexual activity to diseases such as AIDS amounted to “outrageous
conduct that was calculated to produce harm; resulting in provable mental
illness or distress.”
Whatcott called the Statement of Claim
“insane.”
“The ‘harm’ that I allegedly caused through
the statements in my pamphlets is, in actual fact, not harmful, since I made
true statements, and true statements are not harmful.”
Whatcott is no stranger to homosexuality. In
his 2014 autobiography Born in a
Graveyard, Whatcott
reveals his experience of not only being raped by another male in prison, but
of selling himself to a man to pay for his drug addiction. Whatcott makes it
clear that his activism is inspired by his concern for others — based on his
past — who are involved in homosexuality.
Whatcott has made a name for himself for
coming up with creative ways to get out his message. In 2014 he marched in the
Vancouver Pride Parade as a member of the invented Calgary Church of the Flying
Spaghetti Monster where he distributed pamphlets.
In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada found
Whatcott guilty of
so-called hate speech for distributing flyers in Saskatchewan in 2001-02 that
criticized homosexual practices.
Elliott told Daily Xtra that if the class
action suit is certified, then he hopes to bypass a full trial and ask for
summary judgment.
“Where a case is clear cut, there is no point
in going through the expense and delay associated with a trial, [so we can]
bring a motion to the court for a summary judgment and get it over with,
quickly and inexpensively,” Elliott said.
Along with the fines, Elliott is seeking to
have Whatcott permanently barred from coming within three blocks of Pride
Parades anywhere in Canada.
The suit also seeks to determine the
identities of those who financially supported Whatcott’s campaign as well as
those who dressed as “gay zombies” to hand out the pamphlets.
“Those who paid for his airfare or donated
Aeroplan miles to get him to Toronto, those who put him up in Toronto, the
people who paid to print the pamphlets: anyone who helped him in any way could
be on the hook for 100 million dollars,” Elliott told Daily Xtra.
Whatcott told LifeSiteNews that he would
sooner spend the rest of his life in jail rather than betray his friends and
benefactors.
