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LONDON — Britain’s High Court ruled Friday that the mayor of London acted lawfully when he banned bus ads from a Christian group suggesting that homosexuality can be cured.
A Christian charity had challenged mayor Boris Johnson’s decision, as chair of London’s transport authority, to ban ads declaring: “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it.”
Competing ads: Stonewall UK’s message (top) that “some people are gay;” Core Issues Trust’s ad (below) that some people are “ex-gay” and proud.
The advertisements by the group Core Issues Trust claimed that gays could be “reoriented” through prayer and therapy, and were banned by Johnson in April 2012.
Johnson called the group’s message “clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from.”
In Friday’s ruling, Judge Beverley Lang said the ad would have caused “grave offense” to many people, and increased “the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks.”
“My conclusion is that (Transport for London’s) decision was justified and proportionate in pursuit of the legitimate aim of protecting the rights of others,” she said.
“In order to give effect to the primary right of freedom of expression in a democratic society, those who wish to promote an offensive or controversial message should be entitled to do so,” the judge said. “In my view, it is proportionate to ask those people to express those views in a way other than by advertising on buses in a major city.”
Among his responsibilities as mayor, Johnson oversees Transport for London, which is responsible for approving advertising on buses in the city.
The charity’s lawyer, Paul Diamond, told the court the ads were in response to an earlier campaign by Stonewall UK, Britain’s leading LGBT advocacy group, which read, “Some people are gay. Get over it!”
He argued the trust was equally entitled to express its view on the sides of buses.
The judge conceded the charity had an “arguable” case on human rights grounds, and gave it permission to appeal. She said the case raised freedom of speech issues that were of “fundamental importance.”
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Filed under: Europe
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Love it!
Everybody has a right to express their feelings. Whatever happened to freedom of speech?
its good that they banned lies; you cant be “cured” of being gay; its not a disease
Freedom of speech doesn’t include spreading misinformation about so called conversion therapy that has been proven to be detrimental.
Advertising ex-gay therapy (which, let’s face it, it fucking is) is a breach of advertising laws. So shut the fuck up about freedom of speech, you moron.
Good decision by the high court. It is disturbing that the ads were allowed be be placed on buses in the first place. Christians really do need to get over their issues with gays.
♥
I am all for freedom of speech, unless it harms others, some opinions need to be kept to themselfs
@Kimberly even freedom of speech has it’s limits. You can’t yell fire in a crowded theatre. This ads weren’t just offensive, they were harmful. If they wanted to put up an ad in opposition to the original ads, why didn’t they just make ads that said “Some people aren’t gay. Get over it!”?
The bottom photo has been photoshopped :/ I don’t know why…
Boris Johnson is about the only Conservative on the planet that I can say I like.
Christians apparently believe god created everyone, that is, except for gays, lesbians, bisexuals, and transgender people.
and ex gay therapy is just stupid you cannot cure the gay or trans away
I wonder if they can cure straight???
Why not have straight reparative therapy? It’s equally ridiculous!
Their “curing” is just the modern-day burning solution they had so many years ago.
You can’t “pray away the gay ” all you can do is make people closeted and ashamed.
LOVE the UK for this. USA needs to catch the f*ck up already.
HAHAHAHAHA. What does ex-gay and post-gay even mean? They don’t make sense to me.
- They both mean “in propaganda-enabled denial”….partly based on the fallacy that sexual orientation and ability to /engage/ in sexual intercourse/reproduction have any exclusionary dependency upon each other.