Friday 4 March 2011

Freedom Of Speech: A Bad Ad For God

Below is the Westboro Baptist Church's predictably charming statement marking the Supreme Court holding up their first amendment right to freedom of speech.
Fagburn agrees with the ruling - that freedom of speech also means freedom of hate speech.
I kinda agree with much in this piece in the LA Times; The Right To Be Vile.
One thing it doesn't cover is when does something like this - serial picketing of funerals with offensive placards and chants - become harrassment; if a work colleague or neighbour calls me "fucking faggot" every day that's not protected as a freedom in the UK or the US, surely?
Whatever, the God Hates Fags guys and gals are such a bad ad for the anti-gay Christian Right, I say let them do some more damage to themselves.
Talking of ads and god... The British Humanist Association has just started an ad campaign running on buses and billboards across the UK; "Not religious? Say so on this year's census form."
It's been banned outright by CBS Outdoors - the company that owns advertising space in UK railway stations.
The BHA poster will still run elsewhere, but this one is also a censored version.
The Committee of Advertising Practice told them the original had the potential to cause "widespread" and "serious offence".
The offending slogan? "If you're not religious, for god's sake say so."
Which surely means they found the word "god" offensive.

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