TFL, Mayor cleared of 'improperly banning' ex-gay bus ads

The High Court has dismissed a Christian charity’s claim that Mayor of London Boris Johnson was responsible for the “improper” banning of controversial “ex-gay” adverts on London buses.

The posters, which were banned in April 2012, were produced by Christian charity The Core Issues Trust (CIT). They read: “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!” They were produced by the charity in response to Stonewall’s now iconic “Some people are gay. Get over it!” campaign.

The decision not to run the adverts was made by Transport For London’s (TFL) managing director Vernon Everitt. However, in court the CIT accused the transport body of “currying favour” with Boris Johnson, whom they claimed was attempting to win over LGBT voters in the midst of his re-election campaign, reports the BBC.

In a ruling made yesterday (July 30), Mrs Justice Lang dismissed the charity’s case, saying that although TFL was influenced by Johnson, it was ultimately the transport body that had decided to ban the controversial adverts, not the Mayor of London. Read an excerpt from her judgment below.

“Mr Everitt of TFL was strongly influenced by Mr Johnson’s opinion when he made the decision not to run the advertisements. Mr Johnson was not motivated by an improper purpose, namely, to advance his mayoral election campaign.”

In response to the ruling, TFL issued a statement to the press, saying: “As we have always maintained, and the court has ruled, it was our decision not to run the Core Issues Trust adverts and there was no improper purpose behind our decision. Our decision was justified.”

TFL, Mayor cleared of ‘improperly banning’ ex-gay bus ads

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