A billboard provided by the Queensland Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG), which shows a heavily program woman and the caption ‘Congratulations, you’re having a lesbian’, has received complaints by members of the public.
The ad promotes the website whatRUhaving.org, which promotes marriage equality by pointing out that potentially having a gay child makes the social issue applicable to everyone.
The two complaints made to the Advertising Standard Bureau have been dismissed,
In response to one complainant insisting the billboard ‘sexualises children’, National PFLAG spokesperson, Shelley Argent, stated,
“Our intended message was that any child regardless of sexual orientation should be welcomed into a family and equality is an issue for all parents, was clearly lost by those who objected. As the mother of a gay son, I can tell you that NOT making a child feel welcome because of their sexual orientation is the real child abuse”.
Billboard company GOA have also received complaints, Managing Director Chris Tyquin has labelled them as ‘extreme’ and ‘irrational’.
“We respond to complaints from the general public if we feel they are representative of widely held community values. So far we have yet to see any complaints that we’d describe in that manner.
“We supported the PFLAG campaign because we felt it was making a reasonable argument for marriage equality. The people who complained about the ad however were far from reasonable in their objections”.
One complaint made to GOA referred to the PFLAG billboard as a ‘lying, deceitful campaign by the radical homosexual lobby”.
The Youtube video associated with the campaign has been a viral hit, with 300,000 views since it was released two months ago.
Nadine Walker
