Anti-gay Adverts on London Buses Blocked by Boris Johnson

THE GUARDIAN: Mayor steps in to stop London buses carrying Christian group's 'offensive' ads that claim therapy can stop people being gay

Boris Johnson, the Conservative mayor, has pulled an "offensive" Christian campaign advertising "gay conversion" which was due to appear on London's buses next week.

Revelations that adverts asserting the power of therapy to change the sexual orientation of gay people were due to be driven around the capital came as Johnson, who is seeking re-election in May, was due to appear at a mayoral hustings organised by the gay campaigning group Stonewall on Saturday.

The mayor immediately put the wheels in motion to halt the campaign after being alerted to the plans by the Guardian, and made clear that such advertising had no place in a tolerant city.

A clearly angered Johnson said: "London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses." » | Hélène Mulholland | Thursday, April 12, 2012

Anti-gay US Christians Theaten to Picket London Primary School
THE GUARDIAN: Kansas fundamentalists plan protest against lessons about homosexual relationships

Photo of Fred Phelps, the US anti-“fag” fundamentalist, courtesy of The Guardian
A group of American Christian fundamentalists whose slogan is "God hates fags" is threatening to picket an east London primary school over its anti-homophobia work.

A row broke out at George Tomlinson primary school in Waltham Forest, north-east London, earlier this month when some parents pulled their children out of lessons planned for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender history month. The school used books on homosexual relationships, in one case between two male penguins.

Members of the Westboro Baptist church in Topeka, Kansas – which has been the subject of a Louis Theroux television exposé – say they will picket the school next Friday afternoon.

The group's founder, Reverend Fred Phelps, was barred from entering Britain last month to stop him spreading "extremism and hatred". He had intended to picket a play about a homophobic killing.

A message on the group's website announcing their plans said: "God hates the UK and the Tomlinson school fag tyranny, where conscientious parents face religious persecution for withdrawing their children from lessons on lying fag so-called history." >>> Polly Curtis, Education Editor | Friday, March 20, 2009

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