On 22 March, the High Court of England and Wales, in Core Issues Trust v Transport for London, ruled that a decision to ban a Christian group from placing ‘gay cure’ adverts on London buses was lawful despite being procedurally flawed.
In April 2012, Transport for London (TfL) decided to stop Core Issues Trust from posting a ‘gay cure’ advertisement on the outside of its buses on grounds that they went against its "commitment to a tolerant and inclusive London". The Christian charity wished to place an advertisement which read “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!” in response to another advert placed on London buses earlier in 2012 by a gay rights group, Stonewall, which read “Some people are gay, get over it”.
The advert was cleared by the Committee on Advertising Practice (“CAP”) as being compliant with their code, but after receiving a large number of complaints about it the TfL decided to stop the advert from being placed on its buses. Core Issues Trust brought an application for judicial review.
High Court Judge Beverley Lang dismissed Core Issues Trust's claim for a judicial review and found that unjust procedure was substantially outweighed by factors including the offence it would cause to gay people and the risk of prejudice and homophobic attacks.
Judge Lang further dismissed the charity’s allegations of bias against Mayor of London Boris Johnson and found that he had not abused his position as chair of TfL in order to advance his re-election campaign.
Core Issues have been given permission to appeal Judge Lang’s decision in the Court of Appeal. Commenting on the judgment, the Christian charity said it would appeal, arguing the judgment was "likely to stifle open and free debate" about homosexuality and discriminate against "those who reject a 'gay' identity".
Chief executive of the Gay Rights Group Stonewall, Ben Summerskill, welcomed the decision. “in a city where over half of gay young people face bullying at school, and where tens of thousands of gay people are subjected to hate crimes every year just because of the way they were born, it’s perfectly proper for a mayor to object to the use of such advertising in an iconic public setting” said Summerskill.
Click here to read the judgment in full.
Click here to read a UK Human Rights Blog article.
Click here to read an article from the Law and Religion UK forum.