Won’t someone think of the children? You can almost hear the fearmongering and anti-same-sex marriage supporters shrieking in horror at the thought of marriage equality.
Mardi Gras is supposed to be a celebration of the lengths we’ve come to get equal opportunity and equal rights for those who identify as LGBTI. But that message was overshadowed somewhat when both channels 9 and 7 decided to air a commercial against marriage equality. SBS, thankfully, decided to pull the ad.
“We hear about marriage equality a lot, but what about equality for kids?” a woman sitting in a playground with a child questions in the commercial.
Video: Australian Marriage Forum
The ad also features Dr. David van Gend, who is a family doctor and the president of the Australian Marriage Forum.
“Children have an equal right wherever possible to both a mum and a dad,” he says.
“So-called marriage equality forces kids to miss out on a mother or a father. That’s not equality for the kids who miss out. That’s not marriage.”
It’s any wonder both Channel 9 and Channel 7 aired the commercial at all, given the discriminatory nature of the commercial and the time slot it was organised for — smack-bang in the middle of the Mardi Gras parade.
A staunch supporter of same-sex marriage and independent MP for Sydney, Alex Greenwich, was the voice of reason on the subject, saying, “Same-sex couples make excellent parents, and the children of same-sex couples deserve the right to have married parents.
“I would like to dismiss the ads as being on the fringe of public opinion and clearly not representative of the way in which a strong majority of Australians support the LGBTI community, but I think we also can’t underestimate the damage that these ads can do to vulnerable LGBTI people.”
Surely, if it was a commercial against interracial couples, the commercial wouldn’t have been given the green light. That’s just one of the thoughts shared by the public on social media, who’ve been asking how the discriminatory and hateful message was allowed to be aired in the first place.
Rather stunned to see that homophobic ad go to air right after a Mardi Gras PTC. Tasteless move by the sales department.
— Hikaru Freeman🇺🇦 (@HikaruFreeman) March 7, 2015
A ridiculous 'won't somebody think of the children' anti #marriageeqaulity ad just assaulted my TV. All I say to that is HAPPY MARDI GRAS!
— Laura Greaves OAM (@Laura_Greaves) March 7, 2015
https://twitter.com/hagenrieck/status/574110696801075201
https://twitter.com/MelissaPower6/status/574122818125725696
https://twitter.com/simon_curwood/status/574486170819690497
.@MelissaPower6@9NewsSyd It worries me that this ad will incite violence towards SS families.
— #Tadhg Ó Spilláin Stop the Genocidal Zionists! (@o_spillain) March 9, 2015
Australian Marriage Forum airs out of touch ad, driven by irrational homophobic prejudice. The Ad insults far more than the gay community.
— Scott Norton Taylor (@norton_scott) March 8, 2015
What do you think about the anti-same-sex marriage commercial that aired during Mardi Gras? Share your thoughts in the comments section below.
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