Neo-Nazi Quits Movement After Revealing He’s Gay — And Part Jewish
Image by Channel 4/YouTube
By Aiden Pink October 17, 2017
A prominent British white supremacist has announced that he is renouncing his extremism and is coming out of the closet as a gay man with Jewish ancestry.
Kevin Wilshaw was a leader of the National Front group in the 1980s, frequently spoke at nationalist rallies and was arrested for making racist online statements as recently as this March. But he told Channel 4 that he could no longer stand by his past actions.
Blaming actions on “the Jews” as a group is “the generalization that leads to six million people being deliberately murdered,” he said. He disclosed that his mother was part-Jewish with the maiden name Benjamin.
He also said that because of his sexuality he had “been the recipient of the very hatred of the people I want to belong to … if you’re gay it is acceptable in society but with these group of people it’s not acceptable, and I found on one or two occasions when I was suspected of being gay I was subjected to abuse.”
Channel 4 correspondent Paraic O’Brien wrote that “Mr. Wilshaw admits that being a Nazi who is gay – but with a Jewish background – is a contradiction.”
Wilshaw admitted that he was concerned about stepping aside from a movement that had been so central to his life. “I am going to find it difficult, granted, to fill a void that has occupied my life since childhood,” he said.
Contact Aiden Pink at [email protected] or on Twitter, @aidenpink
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
