Riders pissed off at TTC ads that ask “Does God care if I’m gay?"
It must have seemed like such a good idea at the time. After last year’s brouhaha over atheist ads on the TTC—“There’s probably no God”—the pro-deity people thought they’d respond in kind. Bus Stop Bible Studies (BSBS—no, really, that’s the acronym) has put out a smattering of God-infused marketing messages on the sides of streetcars and buses. The ads feature attractive people with thoughtful expressions as they wonder “What is hell?” the same way they might wonder “Why can’t I get real modelling work?” The ads urge Torontonians to go to a Web site to find answers to the questions, and that’s where the good idea turned troublesome. Some TTC riders who went on-line to find the answer to “Does God care if I’m gay?" didn’t like what they found.
The [BSBS ad] that’s drawing ire is “Does God care if I’m gay?” The photo of a tattooed young man directs transit riders to the page www.answerme.com/doesgodcare. The long answer to the question reads, in part, “We know from passages throughout Scripture that God hates homosexual acts BUT no more than any other sinful act.”
That’s an important distinction to the folks at BSBS, though it appears to be lost on the people who have been calling the TTC to complain (as if the TTC didn’t have enough complaints to wade through). The exact number of complaints isn’t known, but it was enough to prompt a review by the commission’s ad committee.
While we do wonder how BSBS thought this ad would fly in a city that welcomes one of the largest Pride festivals in the world, we’re more interested in seeing what hilarious graffiti will turn up if the ads are still running by the time the parade kicks off in June.
• ‘Does God care if I’m gay?’ ads irks TTC riders [Toronto Star]
