Air New Zealand will not remove a competition joke about disgraced Belarusian shot putter Nadzeya Ostapchuk, which has been slammed on social media as transphobic. One of the consolation jokes in its Christmas Cracker promotion on the Grabaseat website read: ''What large heavy ball was responsible for Valerie Adams' gold medal? The Belarusian's left testicle.'' Among the complaints was one from @johubris who tweeted: "This joke is unbelievably offensive, transphobic and just plain unnecessary." A response from the Grabaseat Twitter account that said, ''Not everyone likes our xmas cracker jokes so tell us your tacky kiwi jokes and we'll add our favourites into the cracker.'' People who have emailed Air New Zealand complaining about the joke have received apologies; however it is not changing the jokes in the promotion.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 5th December 2012 - 9:53pm