By Hilary White
LONDON, September 24, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Sir Ian McKellen, who played Gandalf in the Lord of the Rings films, is again using his fame to promote homosexuality – this time to children in schools. McKellen is a founding member of and long-time campaigner for Stonewall, one of the world’s most successful homosexualist lobby groups. His new task with the group involves tours of British schools to speak to them about “tolerance” of homosexuality.
“I think this campaign is right – any openly gay person should consider whether they have a duty of contacting their old school and saying ‘You may not know, but I am gay and I was when I was at school and what is your policy with regard to homophobic bullying?’,” said McKellen.
Some, however, see the gay lobby’s campaign to bring the homosexualist message to schools in the guise of addressing bullying as a straightforward attack on those who would defend true marriage and family.
Fr. Timothy Finigan, founder of the Association of Priests for the Gospel of Life, told LifeSiteNews.com that Stonewall’s efforts in schools are part of a larger government agenda. “Nobody wants to see kids calling each other nasty names or bullying people in any way. But what the government is trying to do in their policies on homophobia is to address schools’ ‘heteronormative’ or ‘heterosexist’ culture.”
The Department of Education and Schools has defined “heterosexism” as “a culture in which individuals, families and their lifestyles are categorised according to a heterosexual model.”
Fr. Finigan says that parents often choose Catholic or other faith schools because of the increased student discipline, in which pupils who are seen to be different are less likely to be bullied. The program to specifically address “homophobic” bullying, he suggested, is largely an attempt to browbeat anyone who might defend true marriage and family. “We’re all against bullying, but you can also engender a culture in which people who are in favour of the family are bullied into silence,” he said.
McKellen described his visit to one faith-based school that he said was “absolutely determined” to demonstrate that their students did not “discriminate.” “I had Gandalf’s sword with me and I knighted a pair of children ‘Sir Minority’ and ‘Dame Minority’ and it went down very well,” he said.
In the original Lord of the Rings books, the fatherly and honourable character of Gandalf was described by J.R.R. Tolkien as an “incarnate” angelic being sent by God to help defeat evil on earth. As a devout traditional Catholic, experts on Tolkien agree that he would have been horrified to see his creation being used to promote the homosexual disorder as normal to children.
McKellen describes himself as an atheist who says that he regrets not having the time to campaign against religious belief in addition to his homosexualist advocacy. In June this year, he was a featured speaker at an event sponsored by the National Secular Society celebrating the abolition of Britain’s blasphemy laws. At the dinner, he read the poem “The love that dares to speak its name” by James Kirkup that was banned in 1976 under the blasphemy laws because it describes homosexual acts committed on the body of the dead Christ.
Earlier this year, McKellen told an audience of homosexualist activists at the Equality Dinner, that, when in office, former Prime Minister Tony Blair took his orders direct from Stonewall. “I reeled off Stonewall’s demands, and he nodded, wrote them down and put a tick by them all. Then he said we will do all that,” said McKellen.
Under the Labour government, the age of consent for homosexual acts was reduced from 18 to 16; Section 28 of the Local Government Act – that prevented local authorities spending public money on the promotion of homosexuality in schools – was abolished; joint adoption of children by homosexuals was legalised; and the Sexual Orientation Regulations were implemented that have forced the closure or secularisation of many of Britain’s Catholic adoption agencies.
Read related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Lord of the Rings Star Using Fame from Film to Promote Homosexual “Marriage”
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2006/may/06050409.html
Scotland Catholic Bishop Warns of “Huge and Well Orchestrated Conspiracy” by Homosexual Activists
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2008/mar/08031306.html