In 1991, now-convicted child molester, child rapist and anti-gay moralist Graham Capill became the first leader of the Christian Heritage Party. Over the next few years, he would compare homosexuality to prostitution, murder, rape... and paedophilia. The book of Genesis in the Bible has given us many stories, but none more inflammatory than the infamous episode of Sodom including the gathering of evidence and the decision as to whether to prosecute. Powers to interfere with family life prior to a case going before a court should be subject to warrant procedures. A special police unit should be charged with the task of dealing with such cases promptly and justly.” Sex education was to be left to parents who “have the primary responsibility to educate their children about sex.” AIDS would be made a “notifiable disease to protect both the AIDS carrier and the rest of society.” Social welfare, the unemployment benefit, ACC? All gone. The Ministry of Women's Affairs was to be abolished also “as it has consistently denigrated the status of the homemaker and failed to promote the interests of women and their role in the family.” No-fault divorce laws were also to be repealed, “given our commitment to the upholding of marriage.” As for law and order, the Christian Heritage Party wanted the death penalty introduced for murder. However, for those found guilty of “certain non-violent offences” which were unspecified, Christian Heritage was keen to grant freedom to criminals under a system which “restricted daytime movement for the purposes of going to and from work, and the enforcement of non-consorting laws. Convicted persons would have to report to ‘Night prisons' at 6:00 p.m. each evening, with weekend visits home allowed, but under strict curfew.” A Christian Heritage government would offer “a return to integrity in leadership; and commitment to the family, to freedom and responsibility, and to sound, time-honoured moral values.” The stage was set for conductor Capill to lead his orchestra in a fundamentalist symphony of his own composition, from one moralising movement to the next. CONNECTING HOMOSEXUALITY AND PAEDOPHILIA Connecting homosexuality and paedophilia in the public's mind seemed to be a special priority for Capill throughout his tenure as Christian Heritage Party leader. In 1992, his party issued a petition to stir up opposition to the Human Rights Act. Capill said the proposed protections for gays and lesbians would promote paedophilia as an acceptable form of sexual behaviour. Capill told gay protesters outside a CHP meeting in 1993 that what they did was unnatural and could be cured through counselling. "It (homosexuality) is like prostitution, murder and rape," he said. In October, he told a CHP rally in Palmerston North that the Human Rights Act was the worst piece of legislation of its kind in the world, even though it also would outlaw discrimination on the basis of religion. "I think its quite wrong to put homosexuality in the same category as race, colour of skin, things like that," he told the Dominion. "Homosexuality is a chosen lifestyle that we can change from." Capill claimed to have ex-gays within the Christian Heritage Party. "If it was a genetic problem they would not have changed... I've gone out of my way to shake their hands, to talk, to tell them there's hope and we want to offer them that hope. My door is always open to homosexuals. That's the sort of image I would like to portray. Not someone who's in a closet and doesn't understand people." The Society for the Promotion of Community Standards – also keen to link homosexuality and paedophilia – agreed. They named Capill as one of their "people of high integrity" in their October 1993 newsletter, recommending him as a candidate to vote for. But next to no-one did... Chris Banks - 8th April 2005