Melbourne’s gay pride festival distances itself from sponsor after Bill Leak’s cartoons and attacks on Safe Schools. Plus News gets in a twist over granny pants
Last year the Herald Sun in Victoria gave good editorial support to Melbourne’s Midsumma festival. “It’s a good time to be gay in Melbourne,” read one story. “Sure, we’re still behind the rest of the western world when it comes to marriage equality, but let’s be glass half full about this.” The media giant has been a gold partner sponsor of Melbourne’s Midsumma festival for the past two years, helping to print the program and lending advertising support in the Herald Sun to the LGBTI event.
But in the past few weeks activists have lobbied the festival hard to sever the relationship because of some of the coverage the company has been giving to LBGTI issues this year. The Australian cartoonist Bill Leak’s portrayal of the gay community as Nazis and Miranda Devine’s attacks on the Safe Schools Coalition were just some of the issues cited.
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