Geoff Coupe's Blog

Reflections on life at “De Witte Wand”…

Offended?

I see that the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has banned an advert produced by a Christian group, The Christian Congress for Traditional Values (CCTV). The advert shows a photo of a traditional family – man, woman and two children, with the slogan: "Gay aim: abolish the family".
 
The ASA said that the advert broke advertising rules on social responsibility, decency, matters of opinion and truthfulness, adding that "We concluded that the poster was likely to cause serious or widespread offence and might lead to anti-social behaviour." Oh dear, I’m not sure I want to be lumped in with the ever-growing group of people who take offense at the slightest thing. Frankly, the advert is pathetic, and a clear reflection of the stupidness of the organisation that produced it, but I don’t feel offended by it. I am more struck by the time-warped attitudes of the people who produced it. Clearly a bunch of god-bothering wankers.
 
I note that the group "defended the poster, citing gay organisations’ manifesto documents from the 1970s which described the traditional family unit as working against homosexuality." From the 1970s?! Clearly they are stuck in a time warp. They are getting exercised over the old Gay Liberation Front manifesto produced in 1971, which was indeed a child of its time. But we’ve all grown up since then – or at least, some of us have. Earth to the CCTV: families come in all shapes and sizes. Get over it.

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2 responses to “Offended?”

  1. Gelert Avatar
    Gelert

    I’ve never been sure exactly how its meant to destroy or threaten ‘traditional’ families anyway, for what surely is a very obvious reason. Or maybe they still think, like the majority of Americans I meet online, that being gay is a choice – rather like taking up scuba diving or voting conservative, and that anyone – once give the option, will suddenly develop a hitherto unnoticed desire for their own sex and a penchant for being slandered and occasionally beaten up on the weekends. They also ignore the massive rate of divorce, domestic violence and single parent families that seem to be on the rise even without help from those not remotely interested in them in the first place.

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  2. Geoff Avatar
    Geoff

    Gelert, rational thinking is never a strong point of folks such as the CCTV. I look at a gay male couple, who are friends of Martin, that have recently been awarded a Dutch honour similar to the UK Queen’s OBE for their 25 years of raising seven foster children, and then I look at people such as CCTV, and I think I *know* who is the poorer example of a good human being.

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