British gay rights campaigners reacted furiously yesterday to a reported call by a Roman Catholic Church leader for Christians to rise up against homosexuals whom he branded as perverts.
Cardinal Thomas Winning, head of Scotland's 750,000 Catholics, also urged what he called the "silent majority" to block government proposals to teach children about gays and lesbians.
"I wish to God they would speak up for their society. I will not stand for this [homosexual] behaviour," Cardinal Winning was quoted as saying. "It pains me to use the word perverted when discussing the homosexual act, but that is what it is," he said.
Mr Peter Tatchell, spokesman for the gay rights group Outrage!, accused him of stirring up hatred against gays, saying: "His scaremongering is provoking false fears and worries . . . The cardinal is storing up prejudice and intolerance."
The cardinal's intervention came as a "Keep the Clause" campaign was opened to retain Section 28 of the Local Government Act in England, which the government is trying to have removed by the House of Lords. The Thatcherite clause bans teachers from promoting homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle. It will later come up in the Scottish Parliament.