NCAA Pulls Focus on Family Ads

Wednesday, 24 February 2010

7 Comments

Under pressure from LGBT advocates, including Pat Griffin, Change.org, and (I imagine) many of you, the NCAA has pulled the Focus on the Family (FOF) ads from its Web site.

As I wrote yesterday, the ads were running at NCAA.com, a site managed in partnership with CBSsports.com. CBS came under fire for running FOF ads during the Super Bowl in January.

There’s still no word about future ads, or about the rumor that CBS will run FOF ads during the upcoming NCAA basketball championships, so stay tuned. Reproductive health blog RH Reality Check also covered the story. (FOF is as anti-choice as they are anti-LGBT.) The story made the virtual pages of Inside Higher Ed, though (h/t, Andy), so let’s hope that not only the LGBT community, but also the community of all fair-minded people in higher education can keep the pressure on.

7 thoughts on “NCAA Pulls Focus on Family Ads”

Matt

so, when you say “fair minded” – you mean others like you who would not allow both sides to be heard, right? That’s your idea of “fair minded” and “free speech” – people who think like you and say what you think should be said? Just curious.
March 4, 2010 at 10:39 am
doogle

Many LGBT folks want some semblance of a family…thru the right to same-sex marriage, adoption of children (because of God’s neglect in allowing the biological function of child-birth to same-sex partners…go figure), and family style employer benefits for same-sex couples. More power to the same-sexers…I’m not opposed to any of that. But…

I find it ironic that LGBT folks want to protest the advertising of family values, even after the struggle they’ve gone thru to latch on to these valuable rights.

Face it, most sports are played in TEAMS, and “family” is the original TEAM.
March 4, 2010 at 11:25 am
Dana

I’m all for “family values” if they include my family. Focus on the Family, however, does not believe I should have the right to be a parent–simply because I want to parent with another woman. It doesn’t believe my spouse and I should be able to marry and become a legal family. That’s not creating a “team spirit.”
March 4, 2010 at 4:35 pm
Dana

That’s not what I’m saying at all. I’m saying that Focus on the Family has publicly said it doesn’t believe I have the right to be a parent or to form a legal family with the person I love. It believes same-sex attractions are wrong. I don’t think those are messages that the NCAA, with a stated policy of non-discrimination on the basis of sexual orienation, should promote.
March 4, 2010 at 4:39 pm
doogle

But, the ad said NOTHING about what you’re discussing. It simply said “Celebrate Family, Celebrate Life”. And you consider that bad? Wow.

And then, Jehmu Greene from the Women’s Media Center goes on FOX and says “the NCAA has bigger balls than the NFL.”…for pulling the ad. Those are family values? Not in my family, and hopefully, not in yours.
March 4, 2010 at 8:04 pm
Dana

The ad itself wasn’t bad. The organization behind it, however, holds values that discriminate against a large part of our society. Would the NCAA have run an ad from the KKK even if the ad itself was innocuous? I don’t think so.
March 5, 2010 at 5:04 pm
Mombian » Blog Archive » Why Didn’t CBS Mention Sara Gilbert’s Partner in PR About New Show?

[…] but allowed banners from the anti-LGBT Focus on the Family to run on a CBS-managed Web site until pressure from LGBT advocates forced them to pull the ads. On the other hand, CBS entertainment president Nina Tassler, told the […]
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