Anti-gay ads on London buses stopped by Mayor Boris Johnson

London’s mayor, Boris Johnson, has stopped ads that suggest homosexuality can be cured from appearing on his city’s buses, the Guardian reported.

“London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance,” Johnson told the Guardian. “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."

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The ads, booked by the Core Issues Trust, which funds “reparative therapy” for gay Christians, and Anglican Mainstream, a conservative Anglican group, were due to run on 25 buses for two weeks beginning next week, MSNBC reported.

The ads were a response to a pro-gay marriage advertising campaign sponsored by gay rights group Stonewall, MSNBC reported. Since April 1, 1000 London buses have displayed ads that say, "Some people are gay. Get over it."

The Christian groups’ banned ads mimicked the Stonewall ads’ design but said, “Not gay! Ex-gay, post-gay and proud. Get over it!”

"I didn't realize censorship was in place,” Mike Davidson, founder of the Core Issues Trust, said, according to MSNBC. “We went through the correct channels, and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They OKed it and now it has been pulled."

But Labor MP and former minister Chris Bryant, a gay ex-vicar, applauded Johnson’s move, the Guardian reported. "The emotional damage that is done to the individuals who try to suppress their sexuality, the women they marry and the children they might have is immeasurable," he said, according to the Guardian. "Most sane Christians believe that homosexuality is not a lifestyle or a choice but is a fact to be discovered or not. The pretence that homosexuality is something you can be weaned off in some way is a fundamental misunderstanding of the nature of creation."

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