Pride of London campaign includes homophobes apologizing

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June 30, 2017 | Sex & Society

Pride of London campaign includes homophobes apologizing

On July 8, London, England, will be hosting its annual Pride celebrations. As part of the build-up to the event, a series of Public Service Announcements (PSAs) called “Love Happens Here” have been released to let people know it's not too late to move beyond their former homophobic ways.

In each of the four 30-second spots, individuals open up about their regret for pushing away an LGBT relative. A fifth ad, combining the other four stories, was also released.

The individuals admit to being wrong and then ask for forgiveness. The tagline: “Don’t Leave It Unsaid.”

Each short film will be shown during a special season of programmes exclusively on Britain's Channel 4 to mark the anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act 1967 -- the first piece of legislation which partially decriminalised homosexuality.

However, the poster part of the ad campaign did not seem to hit the right note with the LGBT community. The images seem to be directed at straight people, leaving some within the local queer community wondering who Pride of London thinks the celebration is really for.

A spokesperson for Pride in London tried to explain, though admitted the group may have been somewhat tone deaf.

He said:

As part of our theme to celebrate Love Happens Here we asked people, whether LGBTI or straight, to send their messages of love for Pride. We then asked some wonderful artists to turn some of these messages into a series of posters.

It is clear we misjudged the content of some of the messages in this poster series, undermining the individuality, importance, and dignity of the LGBTI community. This was never our intention, and we are genuinely sorry to have played any part in something that appears to devalue our own community, and have removed these four images from our campaign.

Yep, because straight allies are the real problem ...