The logo for Banks' Facebook group There are growing calls for More FM to apologise over an exchange where there word "poofter" was used on its Tauranga breakfast show. A complaint to the Broadcasting Standards Authority from a Tauranga resident was not upheld over the May conversation between a host and caller over a winter swim, where the caller accused him of "acting like a poofter". The BSA said the broadcast did not have a high enough level of invective to breach the discrimination or denigration standard, saying in the context it was intended to mean 'wuss' or 'wimp', rather than being a term of abuse directed at homosexuals. Filmmaker and writer Christopher Banks has started a Facebook group calling for an apology from More FM Tauranga, stating "for a lot of gay men, 'poofter' is the last word they hear before losing consciousness." The group has attracted more than 100 members in less than 24 hours. Gay New Zealand Winter Olympian Blake Skjellerup is among those unhappy with the decision, writing on the Facebook group's wall, "I am not sure who works at the BSA, but one can presume, whoever they are, they do not understand the meaning of the word discrimination as they discriminated in their response to the claim." GayNZ.com Daily News has not yet had a response from its inquiry to MediaWorks as to whether an apology will be made, or whether the company is concerned the exchange has offended a number of gay people. GayNZ.com readers are so far divided in a casual unscientific poll on when the use of the term 'poofter' is acceptable, with a slight majority saying 'never' and almost as many saying it is 'fine in jest, but only among gay people'.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Thursday, 12th August 2010 - 5:31pm