Dueling Bus Ads: Pro-Marriage Versus Ex-Gay

The debate over marriage equality in Britain had almost devolved into one about whether gay people can be turned straight.

Advertisements purchased by the Stonewall LGBT rights group on London's iconic buses had said "Some people are gay. Get over it." Then a group supporting so-called reparative therapy bought dueling ads mocking the original.

The counter-ads read: "Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!"

Core Issues Trust, led by Mike Davidson, had bought the messages, which looked exactly like the ones created by the LGBT rights group. But the new version will never make their way onto London's streets because the mayor has intervened to stop it.

"London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance," Mayor Boris Johnson told the Guardian, which first reported this story. "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."