A former UKIP parliamentary candidate and current Oxford City Council hopeful has said people who ‘choose’ to be gay should stop ‘complaining about persecution’ and start thanking straight people for giving birth to them.

Dr Julia Gasper was selected by UKIP (United Kingdom Independence Party)to run for Parliament in 2010 in Oxford East and is now campaigning for election to the city council in next week’s elections, prompting a concerned resident to draw attention to her blog.

This month, UKIP, which advocates withdrawal from the European Union, overtook the Liberal Democrats in a national YouGov poll of voting intentions, though in more recent polls they have reverted to tying with the party.

In 2010, Dr Gasper said gay rights had “gone too far” and suggested homosexuality is a choice.

She also suggested a link between homosexuality and paedophilia should be examined when selecting gay couples to adopt a child.

She wrote: “Homosexuality (as Jean-Paul Sartre said) is simply a form of behaviour, not like being black at all. Black people could and did for thousands of years live independently on another continent, but homosexuals can only exist as a by-product of a heterosexual society.

“Homosexuals are completely dependent on heterosexuals to create them.

“Curiously they never express any gratitude for this, while complaining constantly of persecution.”

On adoption, she wrote: “It makes no sense to argue for the “equal rights” of a homosexual couple because nobody has a right to adopt. Adoption takes place in the interests of the child, not the adults […]

“To talk about gays having a right to adopt is to treat the child like a form of merchandise. It is wholly unacceptable.”

Suggesting homosexuality is a choice, she continued: “If fairness is the issue, it seems fair to me to give a child to couples who have experienced biological sterility or repeated miscarriage, because they really can’t have a child of their own. Their need is greater than that of those who simply choose a same-sex partner.”

“Undoubtedly in my view, it is wrong to force any adoption society to go against its ethics. We ought to reflect that there is a strong connection between male homosexuality and paedophilia. Why hush it up?”

More recently, Dr Gasper has written on marriage equality for gay couples, which UKIP opposes.

When a schoolboy told her earlier this month that gays should not be barred from marriage as polygamy was accepted in Biblical times, Dr Gasper accused him of “corkscrew logic”.

Using the Old Testament story of Jacbob’s polygynous marriage to two women, Rachel and Leah, with whose slave-girls he also had children, Dr Gasper wrote: “Both marriages were regarded as valid. Does this mean that marriage was polygamous? Not at all. Jacob’s marriage to Leah united two people, a man and a woman. His marriage to Rachel also united two people, a man and a woman. Rachel and Leah did not marry each other!!! […]

“It is still strictly accurate to say that each marriage was the union of one man to one woman, for life.”

The City of Oxford will be voting for 24 of its city councillors on 3 May, with Dr Gasper contesting a relatively safe Labour ward.

PinkNews.co.uk was unable to reach Dr Gasper this afternoon to express gratitude.