Tory MPP under fire over homophobic articles in church magazine he oversaw

Amid calls for his resignation over homophobic statements in a church publication he oversaw, a Progressive Conservative MPP insists he is not anti-gay.

Will Bouma (Brantford-Brant), an executive on the Christian Reform Church committee that published the controversial Youth Messenger magazine before he was elected in 2018, is distancing himself from the religious periodical.

“I am a proud, loving, and supportive father to a daughter who is a member of the LGBTQ community,” Bouma said on Twitter on Wednesday.

“My views are clear, I support the rights of all of my constituents regardless of orientation. I had no involvement in writing these articles,” he said.

Liberal Leader Steven Del Duca — who fired two candidates himself last week for past remarks about homosexuality — said Tory Leader Doug Ford should drop Bouma immediately.

“It is deeply, deeply offensive,” Del Duca told reporters at a campaign stop in Eglinton-Lawrence, a PC-held riding his party hopes to win back June 2.

“It has no place in the tolerant, respectful Ontario we are trying to build.”

In Kingston, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said even though Bouma’s daughter is gay, “it doesn’t excuse anything” in a magazine he helped to run.

“It is inexcusable and it should never have happened,” said Horwath.

“Love is love and we’re all equal,” she said, denouncing “these hateful beliefs” embraced by some.

According to a report in Press Progressa publication funded by the left-leaning Broadbent Institute, the Youth Messenger magazine urged young people to reject “the homosexual lifestyle.”

The publication also promoted the discredited and, as of last year, illegal practice of “conversion therapy.”

It has also claimed that “homosexuality has always been considered a sin, even a grievous one” and railed against “adultery, fornication, uncleanness and lasciviousness” likening them to “witchcraft.”

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