Boris Johnson: pulled anti-gay ads. Photocredit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/surreynews/6779397940/sizes/z/in/photostream/
A Christian organisation, the Core Issues Trust, along with Anglican Mainstream, has had its anti-gay adverts pulled from London buses by mayor Boris Johnson. The campaign promoted the idea that homosexuals can be “converted” to heterosexuality. The posters caused outrage amongst many groups, who labelled them homophobic. They were due to make £10,000 for Transport for London and were to run on over twenty buses.The campaign was a response to Stonewall (the gay organisation), which was running its own bus campaign with adverts saying: “Some people are gay. Get over it!” The Core Issues Trust ads read “Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!”
The Core Issues Trust, reported The Guardian, funds “reparative therapy” which it claims can “develop” the “heterosexual potential” of gays. Its leader, Mike Davidson, thinks that gay behavior is “sinful.” Davidson claims that Transport for London had cleared the adverts. He was quoted by The Guardian: “I didn’t realize censorship was in place. We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They okayed it and now it has been pulled.”
The whole caboodle has raised many issues: firstly, was Boris Johnson right to pull the ads, given the idea of freedom of speech? Secondly, what was Stonewall doing with its ads, anyway? And thirdly, can such a thing as “reparative therapy” even exist? It’s a minefield of comment – most agree, though, that whilst the ads were badly conceived (on both sides) they should have been allowed to quietly run their course, since neither would have changed anyone’s minds.
“London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses,” said Boris Johnson, quoted on The Guardian.
Don’t allow Core Issues the publicity. The thing is, said Tom Chivers on The Telegraph, Stonewall knew what it was doing with its ads. They knew it would be offensive, but they still “went ahead.” And the Core Issues Trust people knew that too. “If you want to put up provocative ads of your own, you can’t be annoyed when other people with whom you disagree do the same.” What’s “particularly annoying” is that Stonewall’s ads won’t change anyone’s mind – you won’t “get over” the fact that some people are gay just because of an ad. The same goes for the Core Issues Trust ones – although they might also have a bad effect on young gay teens. But the whole issue should have been let to pass quietly. Banning them just gives them more publicity.
It just encourages homophobia. David Shariatmadara on The Guardian wondered exactly what Stonewall was getting at. They were meant to be about equal marriage rights. But “this doesn’t really clear things up.” In fact, that campaign, and its “supercilious exclamation mark”, might in fact give people free rein to be homophobic. Which it did. It’s a dream for Boris Johnson, of course, who can now “flaunt his inclusivity.” Stonewall should have thought their campaign out more subtly, instead of handing themselves on a plate to homophobics, who can now pretend that they are victims. “Gay people have been pointlessly reminded, not that homophobia is unacceptable, but that there exist organised groups that detest them. Defenders of free speech have had their hackles raised and Boris laughs all the way to City Hall. Stonewall: what were you thinking?”
Boris did wrong. Tim Mongomerie on Conservative Home said that Boris Johnson “could have hidden behind a public order defence.” But he didn’t, and instead “attacked the essential message of the ads.” His fellow blogger Archbishop Cranmer said that the Core Issues Trust were trying to “warn that the promotion of homosexual practices to children and young people, many of whom are known to experience ambivalence as they sort through issues of sexual identity, is misleading and dangerous.”
And what next? Andrew Lillicoe, also on Conservative Home, was indignant: “Imagine the furore, the legal cases, the newspaper column inches if TfL had refused to run the original Stonewall adverts. We would have been told that to do so clearly violated equalities legislation. But it seems to be perfectly okay for them to refuse to run adverts the other way. What next? Will we have Boris instructing TfL to run pro-Boris2012 posters but forbidding all Ken2012 posters on the grounds that Boris doesn’t agree with them? Is that how things work in this country now?”
Not all Christians are homophobic. Symon Hill on his blog called for Christians to oppose the anti-gay ads: “Let us never confuse the radical inclusivity of Christ with the legalism of the homophobes or the shallow surface equality offered by secular liberalism. Let us have love for our opponents. Let us be open to learning and developing our views. Let us not be afraid to take a stand for love and justice. Otherwise, the only news that the world will hear from Christians is a message from people who want to ‘cure’ them of falling in love with the wrong person.”
Loveable old homophobe! Gay website Mememe.tv said, slightly wryly, that the “loveable old homophobe” Boris Johnson had saved the day again. It then illustrated an article about the ads with a picture of a man’s stomach: “Because it is the closest we could find to a stomach that resembles our very own whilst being bummed. The Core Issues Trust are so turned on right now they’ve slipped off their off-white patio chairs that give a little when you sit on them.”