Wed 6 Feb 2013 In: New Zealand Daily News View at Wayback View at NDHA
The Advertising Standards Authority has dismissed a complaint that St-Matthew-in-the-City’s gay baby Jesus billboard is “akin to hate speech”. The billboard outside the Auckland Anglican church has an image of the baby Jesus in a manger with a rainbow coloured halo, and the words “It’s Christmas. Time for Jesus to come out.” Complainant, M. Voorend, said: “I object to the billboards suggestion that Jesus was gay. Under sections Untruthful Presentation; Decency; and Offensive I list my objections. I find this representation of Jesus akin to hate speech.” The Advertising Standards Authority’s Complaints Board rejected the complaint on the same grounds it used to throw out those about an earlier ad from the church, where Mary and Joseph were in bed and the billboard stated “Poor Joseph. God was a hard act to follow”. It said as with the earlier ad, it may have caused some offence, but did not cross the threshold needed to breach any ethical codes, saying “speculation about Jesus’ sexual orientation did not reach the threshold to be considered offensive in light of generally prevailing community standards”. Meanwhile a second complaint about Powershop’s billboard showing the Pope marrying a gay couple has also been dismissed. K. Orr said that the advertisement was “misleading” in that it suggested the Catholic Church supported same-sex marriage, that it “humiliated and ridiculed” the Pope in an offensive manner and said that the advertisement “violated the Pope’s privacy” by using his image for a commercial purpose without his consent. The Advertising Standards Authority disagreed.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 6th February 2013 - 10:49am