became a proponent of the policy. LGBT issues In 1979, Garnsworthy defended the Anglican Church's decision to accept openly gay priests on condition that such individuals not participate in same-sex sexual activity. He argued that the decision was not a change of policy for the church and that equivalent restrictions existed for heterosexual priests in relationships out of wedlock. Brent Hawkes of the Metropolitan Community Church of Toronto cautiously accepted the Anglican Church's decision as a step forward, although he added that the requirement for celibacy would still result in gay priests being closeted. Separate school funding Garnsworthy took part in a high-profile dispute with the Government of Ontario from 1984 to 1986, after Progressive Conservative premier Bill Davis made a surprise decision to fund Ontario's public and Catholic high schools on an equal footing. (The province had previously funded Catholic education only as far as Grade Ten.) Garnsworthy strongly opposed the decision and wrote an article complaining that the religious and moral values of the Roman Catholic Church had in effect been given official state sanction. In particular, he wrote that he did not accept the Catholic positions on family planning, contraception, and abortion, nor did he accept the church's claim to be the sole arbiter of religious truth. Some believe that this intervention had the effect of dividing the funding issue along religious lines. Garnsworthy responded that he was not anti-Catholic and did not want to revive sectarian conflicts from the nineteenth century, but that he believed in and wanted to defend Ontario's public education system. During the 1985 provincial election, Garnsworthy accused Davis of changing the province's education system in the same manner as Adolf Hitler in 1930s Germany. He declined to withdraw the analogy, saying "This is how Hitler changed education in Germany, by exactly the same process, by decree. I won't take that back." (He later clarified that he was not comparing Davis with Hitler in a more general sense.) Frank Miller, who had by this time succeeded Davis as premier and was continuing his funding policy, described the comment as "odious" and "totally unfounded." Many believe this controversy caused significant damage for the Progressive Conservatives in the 1985 election, costing them support among their historically strong constituency of Anglican voters. David Rotenberg, a cabinet minister defeated in his bid for re-election, remarked, "I think [Garnsworthy] would probably get the Ian Paisley award of the