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MP has described homosexuality as 'disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile'
Hypocrite.
Tatchell condemns 'hypocrite' Iris Robinson
Gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has commented on Iris Robinson's public confession of infidelity, describing her as a "hypocrite".
Just before Christmas, Robinson, MP for Strangford in Northern Ireland, announced that she was retiring from politics owing to mental health issues, and yesterday released a statement revealing her suicide attempt following her confession to her husband that she had had an affair with another man.
In 2008, she was the subject of a police investigation after complaints were lodged with the BBC following her comments on Radio Ulster's Stephen Nolan Show. Robinson had told listeners that homosexuality was "disgusting, loathsome, nauseating, wicked and vile", an "abomination" that could be "cured" by therapy, saying: "I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals - trying to turn away from what they are engaged in."
In the same month, the 60-year-old fundamentalist Christian and wife of Northern Ireland's First Minister, Peter Robinson, said in an interview with the Belfast Telegraph that she was "repulsed" by homosexuality, and regarded it as "comparable" to child sex abuse.
Today, Tatchell said: "I'm sorry for the pain that Iris Robinson has suffered but she's a hypocrite. Even now, despite her own adultery, she expresses no regret for her harsh, judgemental moralising against gay people. She is sad and two-faced.
"It is terrible that Iris Robinson has been driven to mental breakdown. I feel very sorry for her. But it is a great pity that this painful experience has not softened her heart towards the suffering of lesbians and gay men. Iris seems as unforgiving as ever. She's still unrepentant about her homophobia."
