Heinz Used to Mean Beans, Now it Means Bigots

I can imagine that just when the gay community begins to relax they are rather miffed that this can happen.

Coming right after the disgusting comments from Irish MP Iris Robinson this illustrates perfectly two opposites of homophobia, the obvious (rancid Robinson) and the not so obvious (Heinz capitulating to bigots and intolerance for the sake of a few pounds)

In truth, the latter is by far the worst as the PM can and will hopefully chastise this vile woman immediately. The link to the petition on-line shows a good number (over 7000) of names and that is heartening.

When we come to Heinz the case is not so straightforward and reeks of old fashioned ideology in regards to gay people. To whit:

"The corporation decided to withdraw the light-hearted Deli Mayo commercial within days of its launch because it was "listening to its consumers"."

It wasn't, not really, it was listening to the intolerant and embarrassed, consumers they may have been but that is a secondary concern.

"The ASA said viewers had complained that the Heinz scene depicting two men giving each other a quick kiss goodbye was "offensive", "inappropriate" and "unsuitable to be seen by children"."

Viewers? Bigots more like. There is nothing wrong with homosexual expressions of affection. They would not moan if it was a heterosexual display of affection would they? As to it being unsuitable for children this is simply hate in caring form. There are gay children, we do not want to deal with it but there are, and positive depictions of same sex relationships such as this are a great help all round.

The glorious, and most hidden vote for a homophobic agenda comes from Heinz themselves.

"Nigel Dickie, a spokesman for Heinz UK, said the Deli Mayo ad was intended as "a humorous take on a slice of life" but the company had decided to pull it last week, before the ASA complaints, because of "consumer feedback".

Mr Dickie added: "Heinz is a global company and we respect all universal rights. The advertisement was intended to be humorous, not designed to cause offence to anyone. Clearly it failed in its intent to amuse and that is why we took the decision to withdraw it."

He said the company apologised if the short-run campaign, which had been due to run for five weeks, had offended anyone."

Mr Dickie apologies for offending people when that which he is apologising for is not capable of offending people. To quantify that, two people kissing, as in this case in a quick peck, is by definition not able to be classed as offensive by society in anyway at any time and to anyone.

Clearly some people have taken offence, but we should treat them for what they are, bigoted, intolerant and quite frankly ridiculous.

What Heinz has done is bowed to pressure (for money or the saving of it by avoiding lost sales) from people twisted with hate . Heinz will profit from this insult to the gay community. If I paid to have a TV channel rant a hate speech against Muslims, Hindus, Blacks or any other minority I would rightly be vilified and arrested for a hate crime. If I did it to make or save money I would be even further lambasted.

This inverse and pernicious kind of homophobia harms, it does immeasurable damage to the young who are exposed to the bigots who are trying to protect them, and to the thousands of gay men and woman who still face danger on the streets and do not need to have their safety undermined further by the ASA, Heinz or the media's failure to recognise this for what it is.

Besides, gay people are equal or they are not, it cannot be both ways. What is acceptable from a straight point of view is also acceptable from a gay one, if not then we are being discriminated against as a group, and that is exactly what has happened here.