By Hilary White
CAMBRIDGE, February 19, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A former mayor of Cambridge, England, John Hipkin, is demanding an apology and a retraction after being accused publicly of “heterosexism” for suggesting that more homes need to be built to accommodate families.
Hipkin wondered aloud at a planning meeting last fall whether the preference of housing developers for one and two bedroom homes was not “putting huge pressure of a contraceptive nature on this city.”
Hipkin said at the time, “People presumably start off single or young marrieds and have children, don’t they? Where are they going to go?”
The Daily Telegraph reports that a complaint was lodged by a homosexual activist group who said that his remarks betrayed heterosexism, defined as “unintentional discrimination towards or against non-heterosexuals due to cultural bias.”
Hipkin, a Liberal Democrat councillor for the university town reacted with outrage and said his comments in no way were “a plan to deny gays a home.”
Calling the complaint a “slur on his character,” Hipkin said, “Such an allegation runs contrary to all the things I think I am. I have spent my life opposing homophobia, sexism, racism – all forms of discrimination.”