News

By John-Henry Westen and Hilary White

LONDON, April 27, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Alan Duncan, the UK’s first openly-homosexual Conservative politician and the Shadow Leader of the House of Commons is rebuffing criticism for saying on a comedy show that he would kill Miss California, Carrie Prejean, for her remarks against homosexual “marriage.” Prejean made the remarks during the recent Miss USA beauty pageant. (See coverage: https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/apr/09042103.html)

Mr. Duncan, on the BBC comedy news show “Have I Got News For You” on Friday, described Prejean as a “silly b**ch.” He added, “If you read that Miss California has been murdered, you will know it was me, won’t you?”

Other panellists on the comedy show expressed shock despite their support for same-sex “marriage.” Katy Brand said, “That’s a hell of a statement to be making on camera there, Alan.” Paul Merton said, “For someone planning to be Home Secretary.”

The Metropolitan Police have received a complaint from George Hargreaves, an outspokenly pro-family evangelical minister and the leader of the small political party, the Christian Party, whose members believe that homosexual activity is sinful.

Yesterday Hargreaves said, “Mr Duncan has crossed the line. A senior politician suggesting, even as a joke, that it is okay that Miss Prejean should be murdered for her evangelical Christian views is totally unacceptable.

“How can we stop gun and knife crime when the man who thinks he will be the next Home Secretary makes death threats?”

In later comments, Duncan continued to treat the incident as a joke. “Of course it was in jest. It is a comedy show after all. I’m sure Miss Prejean’s very beautiful and that if we were to meet we would love each other. I have no plans to kill her. I’ll send her a box of chocolates – unpoisoned,” he told media.

A spokesman for the BBC said, “Alan Duncan’s comment was not meant to be taken seriously and it did not go unchallenged. Its absurdity and unacceptability was [sic] highlighted by the other panellists.” 

George Pitcher, religion editor of the Daily Telegraph and the Sunday Telegraph, wrote on Monday that the larger issue is that a senior Tory politician has said that he is opposed to the current legal definition of marriage in Britain.

“A union between a man and a woman. In current civil and ecclesiastical law that is how it is,” he wrote. “So, it would seem that Mr. Duncan would want to put same-sex civil partnerships on the same civil and ecclesiastical legal footing as marriage. Is that Conservative Party policy and will Mr Duncan push for it if he becomes Home Secretary?”

Duncan, who is in a legal civil partnership with James Dunseath, is described as a “moderniser” in the Tory party and economically and socially libertarian in his political views. When Duncan announced in March 2008 that he would be entering into a homosexual civil partnership, Tory party leader David Cameron said, “I am absolutely delighted for Alan and James and wish them all the very best.”

During the Miss America pageant, aired live on NBC, homosexual activist and celebrity gossip Perez Hilton, one of 13 telecast judges, asked Miss California, Carrie Prejean: “Vermont recently became the fourth state to legalize same-sex marriage.  Do you think every state should follow suit? Why or why not?”

Prejean answered, “I think it’s great Americans are able to choose one or the other.  We live in a land that you can choose same-sex marriage or opposite marriage.  And you know what, in my country, in my family I think that I believe that a marriage should be between a man and a woman.  No offense to anybody there, but that’s how I was raised and that’s how I think it should be – between a man and a woman.”

Hilton later lambasted Prejean for her answer on his popular blog. He called her answer “the worst answer in pageant history.”  “She lost, not because she doesn’t believe in gay marriage, she lost because she’s a dumb b*tch,” he said.

“If that girl would have won Miss USA, California, I would have gone up on stage, I sh*t you not, … snatched that tiara off her head, and run out the door,” said Hilton.

To express concerns to the Conservative party:

David Cameron,
House of Commons,
London, SW1A 0AA.
Email: [email protected]