Anti-gay adverts on London buses blocked by Boris Johnson

[Tank]

Anti-gay adverts on London buses blocked by Boris Johnson

Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor, has pulled an "offensive" Christian campaign advertising "gay conversion" which was due to appear on London's buses next week.

Revelations that adverts asserting the power of therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay people were due to be driven around the capital came as Johnson, who is seeking re-election in May, was due to appear at a mayoral hustings organised by the gay campaigning group Stonewall on Saturday.

The mayor immediately put the wheels in motion to halt the campaign after being alerted to the plans by the Guardian, and made clear that such advertising had no place in a tolerant city...

Good to see bigotry stopped in its tracks!

[Sweetdeath]

Glad to see it never made it to the buses either.

Gay conversion. That just makes me sick.

[Asmodean]

They got Boris-slapped, eh..?

Didn't think the guy was cool before... Perhaps I was wrong. 

[Guardian85]

Americans, take note!
This was done by a conservative. Can you imagine an american conservative stopping a gay-bashing campaign?

[Augustus]

huh. maybe Boris just acts the idiot

[philosoraptor]

Americans, take note!
This was done by a conservative. Can you imagine an american conservative stopping a gay-bashing campaign?

Sadly, no.  But I suspect conservative here and conservative abroad might not necessarily mean the same thing, at least not in the political sense of the word.

[McQ]

Americans, take note!
This was done by a conservative. Can you imagine an american conservative stopping a gay-bashing campaign?

I'm thinking Reagan might have gone the same way. But he's dead, plus not President any more, so it's hard to know for sure.



Good for Boris!

[Sweetdeath]

Americans, take note!
This was done by a conservative. Can you imagine an american conservative stopping a gay-bashing campaign?

Sadly, no.  But I suspect conservative here and conservative abroad might not necessarily mean the same thing, at least not in the political sense of the word.

You're most likely right.

[Tank]

Americans, take note!
This was done by a conservative. Can you imagine an american conservative stopping a gay-bashing campaign?

Sadly, no.  But I suspect conservative here and conservative abroad might not necessarily mean the same thing, at least not in the political sense of the word.

American Conservatives make British Conservatives look like Communists.

[Too Few Lions]

yeah, good to see these ads blocked. The homophobic stance of conservative Christians is just plain unpleasant. I guess the only plus side is that they're so out of touch with mainstream society that their crazy beliefs help turn many young people away from the religion.

[The Magic Pudding]

Old Bob Brown leader of the Greens down here announced his retirement today.
The economics of the Greens is dodgy at times but there is so much to admire about Bob.

After much trauma and soul-searching - including submitting himself to aversion therapy, during which he was wired to a machine that delivered electric shocks each time a picture of a nude man was shown in order to cure his "urges" - he had finally accepted he was gay and had come out to his friends and family 25 years earlier.

Several times he considered killing himself. "I remember walking down Parramatta Road to Sydney University and thinking, 'If I ever get out of this alive I am going to speak up about it,'" Brown says. He moved to London for a few years and talked to a counsellor who suggested that rather than trying to cure himself, he may be better off just accepting that he was gay. He worked through his angst and in 1976 gave an interview, at a time when homosexuality was still illegal in Tasmania, to The Examiner in Launceston under the headline Doctor Says He's Gay: "Many young people are going through a great deal of trauma over something for which they are not to blame," Dr Brown told the newspaper.

"I have seen such an immense change from the total repression and criminality of homosexuality in my lifetime," he explains now. "It does make me much more buoyant and optimistic about the future. If that change can occur in that time there's hope for many other changes."

[OldGit]

American Conservatives make British Conservatives look like Communists.

Exactly.  And don't forget, religion plays no part in their thinking.

[Recusant]

Exactly.  And don't forget, religion plays no part in their thinking.

I think that you're right, for the most part. They do have a few like Baroness Warsi, however.

Speaking of positive things about the current mayor of London: Though Johnson doesn't really deserve credit for coming up with the idea, I think that the Boris Bikes will be a great legacy to the city of London, and it seems that his name is firmly attached to them.

[Traveler]

In my opinion, "conservative" in American now means radical. There is absolutely nothing conservative about them, and they have very little in common with conservatives in our history. So-called conservatives want to take us back to the dark ages. That's a massive revolution (devolution) that requires a twisted mind.

Ike was a Republican and he would be appalled at what's going on today ...

[Tank]

Banned gay bus ad group looks at legal action against TfL

A Christian group which had its advertisement pulled from London buses after it was described as anti-gay has said it is considering legal action.

Anglican Mainstream has instructed a law firm to look at whether Transport for London (TfL) acted illegally when it scrapped the adverts.

It said it wanted to know what happened to its contract with TfL for the ads, which implied people could be "ex-gay".

TfL said the advert was not consistent with its commitment to a tolerant city.

The adverts were paid for by the Core Issues Trust which is working in partnership with Anglican Mainstream on a campaign to support "men and women with homosexual issues who voluntarily seek change in sexual preference and expression".

The banned posters read: "Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!"

They were in response to Stonewall promoting equal marriage by having adverts on 1,000 London buses which featured the slogan: "Some people are gay. Get over it!"...