RED DEER, Alberta — A youth pastor in Alberta, Canada, has been ordered to pay damages equivalent to $7,000 and publicly apologize for a letter to the editor he wrote about homosexuality.
Stephen Boissoin wrote a letter to the local newspaper of Red Deer, Alberta, in June 2002 that included a statement that “children … are being subjected to psychologically and physiologically damaging pro-homosexual literature and guidance in the public school system, all under the fraudulent guise of equal rights.”
A professor at the University of Calgary complained about the letter, and the Alberta Human Rights and Citizenship Commission ruled that Boissoin and the Concerned Christian Coalition violated Alberta’s human rights law by publishing a letter that was “likely to expose homosexuals to hatred or contempt because of their sexual preference.”
The ruling also ordered no further “disparaging remarks” could be made about homosexuals in any media outlet.
The ruling “threatens our very ability to express moral opposition according to our Christian beliefs,” Adele Konyndyk of Voice of the Martyrs Canada (www.persecution.net) told Mission Network News. Boissoin has publicly stated he “will never offer an apology” and plans to appeal the ruling, Konyndyk said. A Canadian homosexual rights group, Equality for Gays and Lesbians Everywhere, sided with Boissoin’s right to free expression, although it disagreed with his beliefs. (TAB)
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