Fine for 5.30PM, the BSA says. The Broadcasting Standards Authority has taken a stand against homophobia in throwing out complaints about a lesbian kiss on Coronation St. The kiss was aired on TV1 when the soap was being screened at 5.30PM. Mark Brownlee of Auckland and Babak Radkhou of Christchurch complained that it breached standards of good taste and decency, responsible programming, children's interests and standards relating to controversial issues. They considered that showing two women kissing was offensive. The BSA found that the scene consisted of a brief, relatively innocuous kiss between two young women, who were sitting on a couch and fully clothed. “The Authority has previously declined to uphold complaints about characters kissing during G programmes," the Authority says. "We also agree with TVNZ that the mere fact that the kiss was between two women does not make it less acceptable," it continues. "We do not consider that most viewers would have been offended by the scene or that it threatened current norms of good taste and decency.” The BSA was also satisfied that the kissing scene was not unsuitable for any unsupervised child viewers and did not warrant a higher classification of PGR, or a later time of broadcast. The decision has a different tone to the BSA's finding that a radio host was fine to read out a text saying "so gay I just got AIDS".
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Monday, 7th May 2012 - 4:56pm