I support gay marriage. However my first instinct is to think Cranmer (not a favourite blog, particularly BTL) has a point in feeling aggrieved at being pressured to respond to complaints (from the ASA) about the fact that he carried an advert on his blog on behalf of the Coalition for Marriage. The ad’s assertion that 70% of people in the UK are opposed to gay marriage seems backed up by at least one poll, so it is not making false claims. Although I don’t like the message of the advertisement, I don’t like the idea of it being censored either.
However, although I think it’s important to monitor and discuss issues relating to freedom of speech in the UK, it’s vital not to lose sight of the far more chilling restrictions elsewhere. In Russia another activist has now fallen foul of new laws against the ‘promotion’ of homosexuality:
Nikolay Alexeyev was fined 5,000 roubles (£105) for spreading ‘homosexual propaganda’ among children, after he went to St Petersburg city hall with a placard reading “Homosexuality is not perverted”.
He plans to take his case to the European Court of Human Rights.
