The caller, Ben, called in to James O’Brien’s radio show on LBC, which was covering the subject of atoning for former bigoted comments.
Starting off, Ben said: “I’m only 28… if I was pulled on some of the things I said in my early 20s, I’d never work again.
“I used to be a member of the English Defence League and I couldn’t be any further away from that now.
“I was homophobic, I was racist… it couldn’t be any different to what I am now.”
The caller then explained that it was James O’Brien’s show that started to help him see differently. He went on to say: “I happened to start listening to you, and at the very same time, I started working with a lot of foreigners, a lot of Polish guys.
“My viewpoint absolutely flipped and changed and I now speak to absolutely none of those people that I used to associate with.”
Ben then went on to explain how his stance on homosexuality changed, saying: “It’s the simple questions: ‘Why do you do that? Why do you hate gays? Why do you hate black people?’ I never bothered to ask myself.
“I had this ridiculous notion in my mind that being gay is against God. But I’ve never been to a church in my entire life. I couldn’t care less about God.
“It was an argument that was so widely used and accepted by the people I associated with, I never stopped to think.”
Related: Iain Dale perfectly shuts down caller who says same-sex marriage is a “stain”
The caller also revealed that he was now trying to atone for his past misdeeds, and that if he’d ever met his 20 year old self it’d be a “fight to keep me off”, saying that he would “shake him”.
He then went on to say: “Whenever I speak to anybody who shares the views I used to have, I try to enlighten them in the way that I’ve been enlightened, and say, look – why? Why do you feel this?
“I’m always very adamant about sorry I am about the way I’ve affected people, because I’m sure my actions have affected people.
“I’ve been trying to even the balance sheet. I like to think that people can tell from me fully acknowledging what I did – I genuinely believed what I was doing. That’s really important – acknowledging I believed in what I said, and not just ‘it was something stupid I said’.”
If you want to listen to part of the clip, you can do so here.
Get your hands on our latest issue now at buy.gaytimes.co.uk
Latest
