Mr. Fenton, as a member of the MS Access gay sub-culture, care
to comment?
Pedophile comments concern gay community --
IQALUIT, Nunavut - Nunavut's minister of education has angered
members of the territory's gay community with comments she made
during the legislature's recent human rights debate.
Thompson was wrong to link homosexuality with pedophilia, says a
gay activist in Iqaluit
The debate, which ended with the territory passing a new Human
Rights Act, focussed on whether sexual orientation should be
included as a reason to protect against discrimination.
During the debate, Manitok Thompson mentioned convicted sex
offender Edward Horne, and the damage Horne inflicted on
numerous young boys in the territory.
Comments like that concern Allison Brewer, a spokesperson for
Iqaluit Pride. She says linking Horne in the context of a
discussion on sexual orientation perpetuates misconceptions that
homosexuals are pedophiles.
She says pedophiles are people who prey on children of their own
sex, or the opposite sex.
"Bringing in issues like pedophilia and polygamy and those kinds
of things, she's torn a page from Elsie Wayne's book," she says.
"That was her rallying cry when she opposed sexual orientation
in the New Brunswick's Human Rights Act and later when she
opposed it in the Charter of rights and Freedoms."
Brewer also says there wasn't enough information conveyed to the
public about the Human Rights Act.
She believes that's why the debate in the legislature lasted for
hours.
Many people, including several MLAs, thought the legislative
assembly would be approving same-sex marriages if they approved
the Human Rights Act.
That is not included in the Act.
