The editors of student newspaper of Indiana's University of Notre Dame have apologised for printing a "cruel and hateful" cartoon promoting gay bashing. The cartoon printed in The Observer read: 'What's the easiest way to turn a fruit into a vegetable?' 'No idea.' 'A baseball bat.' The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation was quick to take the paper's editors to task for publishing the cartoon it described as "incredibly troubling". "As many people know, 'fruit' is often used as a derogatory term for members of the LGBT community," GLAAD pointed out. "This type of advocacy of anti-LGBT violence must stop. It isn't funny. What's more, it promotes hate crimes, which are all too prevalent in society today." An earlier version of the comic - posted on the cartoonist's website, then taken down - had the punchline 'AIDS' instead of 'A baseball bat'. The newspaper's Editor in Chief Jenn Metz claimed she was not present when the decision to run the cartoon was made, and was "incredibly upset" at its appearance. "Allowing this cruel and hateful comic a place on our pages disgraced those values and severely hurt members of our Notre Dame family — our classmates, our friends," read a printed statement. "For this, we sincerely apologise."
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News Staff
First published: Sunday, 17th January 2010 - 10:05pm