In brief:
- ACL in the media over sexualised bus shelter ads,
- Report the abusive Facebook attacks on ACL’s Qld Director Wendy Francis (see links below),
- Support Wendy Francis’ Facebook page calling for Outdoor Advertising to be G-rated.
As you may or may not have heard, the ACL’s Queensland Director Wendy Francis has been front and centre of the debate about the contents of billboards and outdoor advertising around Brisbane.
The issue for ACL has always been the sexualisation of children not the issue of homosexuality. Exposing inappropriate billboard content from condoms to erection problems has been a concern of Wendy’s and the ACL’s for a long time.
The latest effort to see the Adshel Rip and Roll condom ad removed from bus shelters is a part of this campaign. We don’t think too many parents would want their children exposed to in-your-face sexualised condom advertisements while waiting for the school bus.
We are disappointed to see Adshel cave to pressure from the highly organised homosexual lobby and reinstate the billboards. This shows a disregard for children and the right of parents to explain sexual concepts to their children at a time parents deem appropriate, not advertisers.
Wendy has written to the Advertising Standards Bureau and billboard companies complaining about numerous billboards in the past. She was successful in causing a Vampire Diaries poster at bus shelters around Brisbane to be brought down which featured two men leaning over a vulnerable young woman biting her neck. One of these ads was at the Brisbane Boys College. Yet, that didn’t make the news.
ACL lodged a submission to a House of Representatives inquiry in February 2011 and then Wendy appeared on ACL’s behalf at the committee’s hearing in Melbourne with our Victorian Director Rob Ward renewing calls for outdoor advertising to be G Rated. You can read an article she wrote about that submission by clicking here.
Wendy is not new to the issue of the sexualisation of children through inappropriate outdoor advertising and neither is ACL. We made submissions in 2008 to two Senate Inquiries examining broadcasting standards and the sexualisation of children in the contemporary media.
Wendy has done a tremendous job in speaking out on the issue of inappropriate advertising as it effects children. We are concerned at the level of abuse that has been levelled at her and the ACL.
We are coming to you late in the game but we need your practical support in several ways. Firstly, Wendy has a fan page set up calling for Outdoor Advertising to be G Rated. We need to work on our social media efforts, after yesterday, and ask that you would support this group and show that there are people willing to be activated in the social media. Please go and ‘like’ it now.
We also need you to speak up against the obscene and hateful language on Facebook and express the view that this is no way to debate in a civil society.
There are three offensive Facebook pages targeting Wendy we’d like you to report:
- The Facebook account set up called “Wendy Francis is a Homophobe”,
- “Wendy Francis is a bigot”,
- And more seriously, “Wendy Francis is a F*** Idiot” (WARNING: this contains obscenities.
If you have a Facebook profile, click on these links, go to the page and on the left-hand side you’ll find a link that says “Report Page” – you can select “Targets a friend”.
Be courageous and let activists know that this is completely inappropriate, whether they agree or not with ACL’s concern for the sexualisation of children through outdoor advertising. It’s not right to attack people personally and these claims about Wendy are untrue and offensive.
The last 24 hours have been difficult for our communication and to make matters worse, our website went down. We hope that you’ll help us out with this and participate in the debate on social media such as Facebook.
Thank you for your support for the work of the ACL.
Lyle Shelton
Chief of Staff
Keep up the good work guys! There are a lot of people who support you. Many don’t comment or don’t have a fb account. This sort of thing will always attract those who feel the need to attack others and push their own agenda. They seem to swarm out from under the rocks. Obviously people are threatened – and we know where that comes from! Just remember who we serve!
I’m a bit torn here. I am gay and a Christian (which, to many involved and allied with ACL [and many in the gay community] is a tautology, I know). I found lots of the comments about Ms Francis offensive and most unnecessary. However, I think that Ms Francis’ poor communications on this, and other matters, have not helped her in any way. Her consistent message, until challenged, is that this is about homosexuality in the public sphere – then it becomes about something else. I don’t support your campaign against this ad, because it seems quite clearly an anti-gay campaign: even your rhetoric in the article above demonstrates this. As I said, I’m sorry Wendy was attacked personally and called names – that most certainly does not do anyone credit.
Response to Cam. I find it difficult to know how you can be both gay & a christian, when the ideals and principles of being gay are not what the teachings are of Christ . I might not be the greatest scholar of the bible, but I cannot remember any where where Christ condones being Gay/homosexuality. What I do know, he says, “repent and give up your sin, and follow me”. The question is How can you follow Christ if you are not prepared to “give up your sin”. He wants people to try and be 100% Christian, not 50%., and only give up the sin that they want to.
you guys are just awesome in ensuring that the right of parents to decide when the education of this nature takes place, regarding their children, is upheld! Good effort!
So does this mean you’ll ban PG rated movie posters such as Chronicles of Narnia? Or is that sort of Christian writing not to your pre-approved style?
@Helen – interesting that you talk about an agenda. Remember that you’re posting on the website of a ‘lobby group’ who had the original campaign to remove the posters. Not saying who is right or wrong, but it’s unfair to say that one side has an ‘agenda’ as a negative when it couldn’t be more plain that the ACL has one too.
Given your concerns about the sexualisation of children, will you also be campaigning against the American-style beauty pagents for children being imported into Australia by Texas-based company Universal Royalty?
@ Richard Watts – well yes actually:
http://australianchristianlobby.org.au/2011/04/beauty-pageants-aren%e2%80%99t-for-kids/
the media has Played the ACL big time, everyone has the right to have an opinion, and the MEDIA HAS STIRRED HATE UP!
I visisted some of the anti Wendy Francis facebook pages. Wow there are some angry people there. Now there are angry people on both sides – the Christian side has a small minority of offensive people but the Gay side has very few making calm polite debate. It is all very school yard,pulling people down, abusive language. Anyway go Wendy – I wonder how many of these angry people have kids?
much has been made of this debate about the alleged homophobia aspect of the complaints and the ACL in general, of which Wendy Francis has vehemently denied. in order to dispel such rumours unequivocally, i suggest posting a press release on this website indicating that the ACL accepts and supports homosexuality and denounces discrimination against any person based on their sexual preferences.
this simple act will quickly silence any critic trying to argue that any implied intentions exist and will focus the argument back on the true issues outlined in the complaints.
Luke, the ACL has supported the removal of unjustified discrimination against homosexual couples as a matter of justice:
“ACL has a track record of supporting the removal of discrimination against same-sex couples and backed all of the Rudd government’s 85 law reforms in 2008 which delivered equality . . .” http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/2746976.html
Nobody should be vilified, harassed or bullied on account of their sexual preference nor their religious beliefs.