London Buses | DaveD's Blog

Occasionally, just occasionally, I find myself in agreement with Boris Johnson. He is, of course, a politician, so I can console myself with the suspicion that he is being opportunistic, and maintain my slightly leftish equilibrium.

For a while now, Stonewall have been running a poster campaign:

Some Christians have said that the first part of that slogan, “some people are gay”, is a claim that gays are born that way, so they should, in turn, be allowed to run their own version of the Stonewall poster on the side of London buses:
The problem with their argument is that no such claim is made. The ad just says that some people are gay.
The problem with the distorted version of the ad, aside from possible copyright issues, is that it implies that being gay is an illness, and claims that it can be cured.

There is no evidence for this, aside from the anecdotes of people with a vested interest. Whether they are promoting their own, bigoted, religious viewpoint, or they are gay and trying to fit in with the people around them, their “evidence” is worthless.

Anyway, BoJo has banned that distortion from appearing on London buses.

Not everyone is as sanguine about the ban as I am. I can comfortably dismiss the complaints of “persecution” from whiny bigots, but others with a track record of opposing unfair discrimination make the very sensible point that such decisions, if made for the wrong reasons, could backfire on everyone else. I hope that the ban can be upheld for rational reasons. No doubt we’ll find out soon, as the decision faces a legal challenge from “Anglican Mainstream” and “Core Issues”, the groups behind the distortion. In the meantime, here’s the very best response (in my opinion) to the religious bigotry that spawned that hateful message (Note the attire of the man in the middle of the picture):