homosexuals and a religious campaigner.

Speaker Mr. Duane Santucci says the dead man lived a gay life and died suffering from AIDS.

He says the man rejected homosexuality before he died and asked for a warning about AIDS to go out at his funeral.

Mr. Santucci's speech caused some mourners to walk out of the service at St.

Paul AME church.

One gay resident condemned it as "a malicious sermon intent on raising fear, ignorance and more intolerance toward the gay community''.

The protester said Mr. Santucci "demonstrated the worst kind of disrespect towards the deceased's family and friends by his venomous words''.

Half the mourners were gay, said the protester in a letter to The Royal Gazette , signed Loud and Queer, Southampton.

"Duane's antics in the pulpit have led me to greater heights in the fight for equal rights for gays and lesbians in this Country.'' Another two letter-writers condemned the speech, using the pen-names Appalled, Hamilton Parish and Shocked, Southampton.

"He screamed from the pulpit in so many octaves that one could not help but wonder if he himself was content with the lifestyle he has now chosen,'' said the first.

"Such behaviour only illustrates to the homosexual community that we as Christians are filled with hatred and ignorance instead of Christ's love and affection.'' Mr. Santucci told The Gazette yesterday he had known the dead man for 17 years and had been his "care-giver''.

"He sought me out specifically because he knew I had been working with AIDS patients for seven to eight years.'' Mr. Santucci said he helped make sure the man ate properly, assisted him in cleaning his house and did errands for him.

The dying man put him in charge of ordering his affairs, he said.

"Whatever I preached in the sermon was what he asked me to.

"He wanted the truth to be known, that he lived a homosexual life and because of that life he ended up being infected by the AIDS virus.

"I'm not going to go gay-bashing and say that AIDS is caused by homosexuality, because it's not.

"He asked me to make sure I got the message across, how devastated he was by this disease, how it destroyed him physically, mentally and spiritually, and how he would advise anyone that lived any type of lifestyle to change from their ways before it was too late.

"I said there were many that sat among us in the house of God that were outright lesbians and homosexuals, who had come there to pay respect to a man they believed died a homosexual.

"My words to them were that he did not die a homosexual. He gave his heart and life and soul to Christ Jesus. He died saved, sanctified, delivered and set free.

"They were stunned at the fact that I can boldly stand there and confront such an audience.'' Mr. Santucci, who is married with four children, said the Bible condemned homosexuality as an abomination.

He anticipated a battle with local gays. "These people are ready to fight and they're ready to fight dirty.

"If they've got darts, let them throw them. If it hadn't been for my old lifestyle, I wouldn't be as strong as I am with the lifestyle I now have.

"I know every last one of them by name. I'm going to fight with every weapon that I have.'' Last night the dead man's mother accused the letter-writers of penning "a bunch of garbage''.

She said: "They used the boy -- they used everything he had. But Duane Santucci was like a brother to him.

"What he said was the truth. Let the child rest in peace.'' One of her daughters added: "The time that my brother needed his so-called friends, it was his family that were there.

"What Santucci spoke was the truth.''