Activist loses complaint against Footy Show
Gay rights activist Gary Burns has lost his vilification complaint against the NRL Footy Show's "Elton Johns" sketch.
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Sydney gay rights activist Gary Burns has lost his vilification complaint against the NRL Footy Show.
The 2009 skit featured a fictitious gay brother of troubled NRL siblings Andrew and Matthew Johns, called ‘Elton Johns’.
“I want to return this,” said Johns’ father Gary in the skit. “It’s faulty.”
Matthew Johns, added: “Dad only knew I was gay when he walked in on me and my boyfriend Ian (Roberts).”
Roberts later publicly slammed the sketch.
But the Administrative Decisions Tribunal found that while the skit was tasteless, offensive and unfortunate it was not capable of inciting hatred or severe contempt or serious ridicule of homosexuals.
Burns plans to lodge an appeal.
“It’s not acceptable to refer to people of a certain characteristic as faulty and the ADT tribunal members not having the courage to substantiate it, to bring about a change in the way people portray or want to ridicule minority groups,” he said.
Source: ABC
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- Tagged with NRL, The Footy Show
26 Responses
Boganpride (whoever you are & whatever that means ).
It’s not as you put it about me needing to toughen up.
It’s about respecting other’s difference’es.
I think the real issue for you bogan boy is you believe gays are only there for you to ridicule.
Bogan you wont get away with this hillbilly 50’s homophobic crap anymore.
Gary Burns is no sissy.
He will deal with legally anyone he feels breaches the NSW Anti-Discrimination Act (1977).
@Gary Burns.Imagine if this skit was about a Jewish Boy depicted as not being able to play sport because he was a Jew would that be deemed acceptable for television ?
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What are you suggesting? That we Jews can’t play sport? Aren’t you showing Discrimination, towards Jews, By using that as an example?
But hey. Jews are made fun of about that all the time. I think you need to toughen up and roll with the punches. like every other section of society does. By complaining about this. You’re just promoting another stereotype about gays. The sterotype that you’re all “precious”.
Go get’em Gary!!!
They need to learn that isn’t okay to promote intolerance.
This case is now in the hands of a Senior Counsel.
We are looking for grounds to appeal.
My argument was simple: “If someone is publicly ridiculed as “faulty” because of their characteristic it is vilification.
Imagine if this skit was about a Jewish Boy depicted as not being able to play sport because he was a Jew would that be deemed acceptable for television ?
I don’t think so.
Discrimination law under the NSW ADT is a murky and difficult jurisdiction to work in.
I will probably lose more cases then I win.
But I believe in this work and will continue in it.
Denis there are plenty of Maris gras around the world that make Sydney’s look tame and have nothing to do with homosexuality. Rio and New Orleans are just as raunchy.
The Sydney mardi gras started as a protest march back when it was still illegal to be gay. They wanted their rights to be recognised and the protest ended with the marchers being brutally bashed by the police. The protest marches turned into remembrance marches to honour the original protesters and eventually became what it is now- a celebration of the fact that LGBT people can now dare to be themselves.
So maybe you wouldn’t support or vilify a straight mardi gras Denis, but the simple truth is, the straight community has never needed one.
Bringing any attention to things of this order is inflammatory,as a Heterosexual I would never vilify or support a public parade where blatant and explicit images and simulations of my sexual preference are displayed and flaunted.
We as a society seem to be leaning towards reverse discrimination a social condition that is also present regarding racism as well.
Not until attention is neither paid to or acted upon will true acceptance and equal footing be given to gender or racial protagonists.
I agree with Knowfirst. Gary Burns has chosen the wrong battle here. The sketch was silly, at best. I reckon the greatest crime was that it wasn’t well written or especially funny. I did find the idea of a Johns brother named Elton pretty funny, however. The Footy Show could’ve used him as their very own Bruno.
I can see how the sketch could be seen to have the wrong message. The correct response to being offended by a comedy sketch is to make your disapproval public, not file a lawsuit. It shouldn’t be a matter for the courts to police every implied wrong message in comedy or fictional drama. To give the Footy Show its due, they brought on a couple of guys from the gay rugby team, Sydney Convicts, to talk about their team and what they thought of the sketch. Call it damage control if you like. The hosts seemed pretty contrite to me.
Bringing on the Sydney Convicts (who are excellent at Rugby Union and not Rugby League) was so damage control as to being ridiculous. It was nothing more than being party to the conditions of an apology in order to offset the complaint, including Fatty finishing with the line “thanks for your support.” Prior to the incident the show had zero interest in interviewing them despite winning the Bingham Cup in the US. Burns’ complaint is not a legal case, it is civil under the ADT.
I know, I get that. What I’m trying to say is Family Guy have unleahsed a bevy of insulting gay jokes, but seem to get away with it because they are gay friendly. I think the Matty Johns sketch was trying to be funny to it’s target audience, but in the process forgot others would misinterpet it, or take it a way that they didnt think it would be taken.
@boganpride, or as some prophety dude once said, do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. It’d be a nicer world if we looked at people as opportunities to connect with and learn from rather than denigrate and put down.
Cliff, the difference is on when a show is laughing with us or laughing at us.
Look at Family Guy. Now these guys are known to be gay friendly, but they go all out with the gay jokes. Some are pretty full on and full of stereotypes, like the episode where Peter was injected with the gay gene. They may not use the word f****t or faulty or whatever, but someone could misinterpret the intent by those jokes and feel the way the feel about the Matty Johns sketch.
Like Billy Connolly said. Being accept in society, means you’re going to be made fun of. If you don’t like being made fun of. Get back in the closet.
We need to stop holding comedy ransom to morality. There are no sacred cows everything is up for grabs.
Crap TV skits do not set agendas in the playground. Bullies will bully… whether something is social accepted or not. They will find a weak spot and attack it… it’s about power not issues
Bleh – everyone just loves to be outraged
**** However the Footy Show should be charged with gross negligence to sketch comedy, man that stuff is unfunny ****
This makes me feel embarrassed to be an Australian. I don’t care what the intent of the sketch was, the fact is that it equates being gay to being “faulty” is appalling. Shame on the Administrative Decisions Tribunal, Matthew Johns and Channel Nine.
@Knowfirst. You’re right- Gary Burns is a serial complainant. But he shouldn’t have to be. The rest of society should be just as outraged as he is. We should all be trying to change the culture out there so that young gay people don’t feel so devoid of hope for their futures that become full of despair and see no way out of it. It is not acceptable that The Footy Show would send the message that gays are defective and it is even less acceptable that they would be telling kids out there that it is okay to make fun of gays.
Asher Brown, 13 years-old, shot himself through the head with his father’s handgun about a month ago. Around the same time, Billy Lucas (15 years old) hung himself because he couldn’t face homophobic bullying any more. 15 year-old Justin Aaberg hanged himself two years after he came out. Shaquille Wisdom (13) hanged himself after he came out to a friend who told everyone at his school he was gay.
At only 11 years of age, Jaheem Herrera didn’t even know what the word “gay” meant, but he was labelled it by the other students at his school and bullied relentlessly. One day he came home from school and hanged himself with a belt from the pole in his bedroom cloest. He was found by his mother and sister after he didn’t respond when called for dinner. Lawrence King (15) was shot to death by a 14 student who thought it was okay to hate gays. Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself at age 11 because he could face any more bullying because of his sexuality.
Yes, Gary Burns is a serial complainant. I just hope that he keeps up the fight.
Cases like this will continue to be necessary until people grow up and accept diversity. And kids do listen. I was stunned recently to hear a 12 year old girl (from a wealthy family, private school educated) call a friend of my son’s a “loser fa**ot”, apparently in jest.
here here
Totally agree Regan – this “humour” does nothing to help the self-esteem of young gay people, who already live in a world that at best “tolerates” them.
Even though the court case failed, hopefully it will make broadcasters think, before putting such garbage to air.
What a crappy decision; now the Footy Show are going to think they did nothing wrong and their gay vilification will continue. I don’t know who’s more out of touch – the Footy Show or the ADT. It’s truly tragic that both are.
The NRL footy show has always had school boy humour bordering on unappropiate.
it was the usual rubbish from matty johns. unfunny and stupid
Gary Burns is a serial complainant and doesn’t do his cause any good. Sorry, but it’s the truth.
The sketch wasn’t that funny, but I don’t think it was tasteless either. I think the joke was The Dad for thinking the gay son was faulty, not the gay son. I don’t know if I’m desensitised to homophobic jokes or content, but I didn’t find anything hateful about it.
Unfortunatley with shows like this, Hey Hey it’s Saturday and all that “old school” humour, you’re going to get unfunny stuff. I remember a couple of years ago that courier show from the Pizza guys had that dreadful stereotype of a gay character in it, and the punchline was Angry Anderson calling him a poof. It wasn’t funny, but it also showed how… unclever it was.
In order for the humour to grow up, we need to grow up as well and not let anthing that may seem anti gay define an argument.
NRL Footy Show gag was tasteless. “Humour” like that is not ok. Shift it to the dad, shift it to the son it doesn’t matter. The message was wrong.
PA third of gay teens try to commit suicide and seeing things like that skit is part of the reason why. It makes it hard for them to imagine ever having a life in which people accept them for who they are. It also makes straight kids think its okay to make fun of gays. I hope Burns does appeal.