}

Saturday, June 04, 2011

Responding to hate creatively


A few days ago, I posted about how Australian bus shelter ads promoting safer sex were taken down when the company, Adshel, received 80 complaints, and how after they realised it was actually the result of an organised campaign from extremist anti-gay activists, they put the ads back up.

This video takes the real homophobic comments from the complaints and also from comments posted to articles covering the story. They say about 80-90% are verbatim, with some creative liberties, too, and all to make a point, as summed up in the information they posted with the video on YouTube:
“It's unfortunate these people use the banner of ‘Christianity’ to promote hate. Most modern Christians have accepted the homophobic aspects of the bible as misguided relics from a society gone by—like stoning, slavery and the whole ‘world being flat’ thing. Unfortunately, there are a minority in Australia that wield these like weapons and give Christians a bad name.

“I don't like that. You don't get to do that any more. If you're uncomfortable with the idea of homosexuality, you will grow out of it and then realise you had nothing to fear, and that your life hasn't changed in the slightest.” [typos corrected]
This is one of the more creative ways that I’ve seen people fight back against homophobic bigotry, and I think it’s something others can do and build on. This is the first way I’ve seen that really has the potential to embarrass bigots with their own words.

(Via Joe.My.God.)

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