A NORTHERN Ireland man has confirmed he is to take legal action against the Mayor of London for blocking advertisements on London buses about his journey out of homosexuality.
Dr Mike Davidson, who runs Northern Ireland group Core Issues, had linked up with an international Anglican group to book ads on the buses that affirmed the identity of some people as “post-gay” or “ex-gay”.
Mayor of London Boris Johnson, who is the Tory mayoral candidate in next month’s elections, personally intervened to stop the ads running.
He said: “The adverts are insulting to lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender Londoners and damaging for everyone who believes London is the greatest city in the world because of its tolerance.”
The story began at the start of April when pro-gay group Stonewall ran ads on the London buses saying: “Some people are gay. Get over it.”
Core Issues and Anglican Mainstream then booked follow-up advertisements as a response, which read: “Not gay! Post-gay, ex-gay and proud. Get over it!”.
However, Mayor Johnson intervened to halt them.
Last night, Core Issues director Mr Davidson confirmed that he and Anglican Mainstream had decided to pursue the matter through the courts.
“We have decided we will be taking legal action,” he said. “We believe our freedom of speech has been interfered with and there was a contract in place which appears to have been broken. We have chosen our legal team and are looking at our strategy.
“The adverts were intended to reflect my own journey out of homosexuality. I am very disappointed that Boris Johnson did not have a broader vision for diversity in the nation. Sexuality is much more nuanced than simply dividing people up into gay and straight.
“Gay men and women need to be valued and respected for who they are. But the same respect also needs to be given to those of us who have chosen other directions.”
Dr Davidson, whose doctorate is in education, told his life story in an in-depth interview with the Sunday Telegraph at the weekend.
A married family man, he said his choice was to seek spiritual and therapeutic support to overcome homosexual desire in his life, which he says has worked well for him.
Yesterday, he issued a joint statement with Anglican Mainstream, challenging those Anglican bishops and senior clergy who are supporting David Cameron’s campaign to legalise gay marriage.
Canon Dr Chris Sugden, executive secretary of Anglican Mainstream, said: “The view expressed by some senior serving clergy, and retired bishops, would redefine Christian belief. They do not have the standing either to rewrite or reinterpret the clear teaching of the Bible, which the church has always understood to prohibit any and all sexual relations outside the union for life of one man and one woman.”
Dr Davidson added: “Not even the gay community is agreed that homosexuality is innate and immutable.”
He drew attention to Matthew Parris’ column in The Times on Saturday in which the openly gay ex-MP said that the 20th century re-categorisation of a whole section of males as “homosexuals” was ill-founded and “a mistake”.
The columnist, who does not believe that so-called “gay cures” can work, said that “for almost all recorded history, humanity described male same-sex attraction as a kind of habit, a diversion to which any man might be prone and into which any might be led — something men do as opposed to something men are”.
Mr Parris added: “Most gay men manage the considerable intellectual contortion of believing that there’s nothing they could do to alter their own sexuality while at the same time believing (not without evidence) that there’s quite a lot they might do to alter a straight man’s sexuality (“five pints of lager” is the usual prescription).
“As for altering a gay man’s sexuality, women would know most about this, and women don’t talk.
“Even I, who feel myself to be exclusively gay, know from dreams and from occasional involuntary physical reactions that shelved somewhere in my unconscious must be a strand of heterosexuality. Millions of gay men will have the same experiences.”
He concluded: “The day that the battle for homosexual equality is won and over will be the day a man, straight or gay, can boast that he chose [his orientation].”