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"Ricky Gervais has said that homophobic parents are child abusers. The British comedian revealed his stance while talking on CNN&amp;#039;s Piers Morgan show in the US on Friday night (February 17). He said: &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s when I see some of these religious fundamentalists saying that they&amp;#039;ve told their five-year-old children that if they turn out gay, they will burn in hell. That to me is child abuse. That&amp;#039;s nothing to do with religion or spirituality. That&amp;#039;s child abuse.&amp;quot; The actor and writer admitted that, although he is an atheist, he respects the idea of religion. He told Piers Morgan: &amp;quot;I&amp;#039;ve got nothing against people believing in God at all. In fact, if it did make you a kinder person, if you only did good things in his name, then great. But there&amp;#039;s the rub. &amp;quot;So that&amp;#039;s why I&amp;#039;m passionate when it comes to that.&amp;quot; The Life&amp;#039;s Too Short sitcom star continued his rant when asked why he thought many Republican politicians took the anti-gay stance, and if they did it because of their beliefs. He said: &amp;quot;Just because they&amp;#039;re offended by someone being gay, it doesn&amp;#039;t mean they&amp;#039;re right. &amp;quot;It&amp;#039;s a strange thing that gay - being gay - is a choice. No, being gay isn&amp;#039;t a choice, you know? I want to go, &amp;#039;Look, you try it, then. If it&amp;#039;s a choice, have a go&amp;#039;.&amp;quot; &amp;gt; Ricky Gervais plays rude dolphin in Family Guy: watch video &amp;gt; Doug Stanhope: &amp;#039;Ricky Gervais is my biggest fan&amp;#039; Watch the behind-the-scenes video of Ricky Gervais&amp;#039; appearance on the show below:  "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.digitalspy.com/showbiz/news/a366567/ricky-gervais-homophobic-parents-are-child-abusers/>