March 10, 2008 | Sex & Society

Ex-gay ad pulled from Canadian TV

One of Canada's largest television networks, CTV, was this week forced to pull a commercial that argued gays could become straight.

The 30-second ad, created by Life Productions, featured an 'ex-gay' man arguing, "what many who are struggling with homosexuality don’t realize, and seldom hear, is that they can change. I should know - for 13 years, I used to be one."

Protestors quickly took to the Internet, in this case Facebook, to start an online campaign to get CTV to drop the ad and apologize. It worked. CTV responded, acknowledging that "the commercial (was) inappropriate and it has been pulled off the air."

CTV claims they were not familiar with the ad's content. "It is our corporate policy not to air advocacy ads of this nature. Moreover, CTV television stations do not condone, promote or engage in discrimination against anyone based on race, national or ethnic origin, color, religion, age, sex, sexual orientation, marital status or physical or mental disability."

The network, which has in the past sponsored Toronto Gay Pride,  is investigating how an ad that controvenes its policies slipped through and managed to be aired seven times before being pulled. Someone was certainly asleep at the switch ...