Neo-Nazi comes out as gay and reveals Jewish roots

A Neo-Nazi and National Front Organizer renounced his ties to the far-right groups while coming out as gay and revealing his own Jewish heritage.

Kevin Wilshaw in an interview with Channel 4 News acknowledged being a homosexual and a Nazi with a Jewish background was a bit of contradiction. He said he joined up with the groups in an effort to find comradery.

“It’s terribly selfish thing to say, but it’s true,” he told the news station. “I saw people being abused, shouted at, spat at in the street — it’s not until it’s directed at you that you suddenly realize what you’re doing is wrong.”

Wilshaw joined the National Front in the 70s and became a regional organizer by the age of 20. He continued on to become what he called a “freelance extremist,” working with a variety of fringe groups over the years.

“I didn’t have many friends at school, I wanted to be a member of a group of people that had an aim, and I thought getting involved in that kind of thing would be comradeship,” he explained.

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Wilshaw also opened up about his mother and her Jewish ancestors. Still in his application to join the Front, he wrote about his hatred of “the Jews.”

“That term, ‘the Jews,’ is the global faceless mass of people you can’t personalize,” he told News 4. “That’s the generalization that leads to 6 million people being deliberately murdered.”

He said he’s now able to recognize acceptance from such groups were based on lies, that they were “hollow.”

He added that he feels “appalingly guilty” over his stance and the rift its caused with his loved ones. Wilshaw also admitted to acting out in self-defense, but denied ever physically attacking someone based on their ethnicity or religion.

“I really do feel guilty,” Wilshaw said on his change of heart. “I really do, not only that, this is also a barrier to me having a relationship with my own family, and I want to get rid of it, it’s too much weight.”

He also said he hopes to “do some damage” to “the people who are propagating this kind of rubbish” and show them “what it’s like for those who are living a lie and be on the receiving end of this type of propaganda.”