Apple ‘edited out’ lesbian mums from international TV ads
Apple has been accused of trying to appeal to homophobes by removing footage of two lesbian mums from an ad campaign.
The ‘Shot on iPhone’ ad was released by Apple in a number of territories earlier this month for international Mother’s Day, featuring stills and videos of parents and their children.
The ad, set to ‘Because You Are Who You Are” by K.S. Rhoads, includes an image of mothers Melanie and Vanessa Roy and their two beautiful children.
All very heartwarming.
But while the original version of the ad aired in the US, Canada and Australia, the Roys appear to have been edited out of translated versions of the ad.
Versions of the ad airing in Turkey, Germany, Japan and France appear to omit the lesbian couple, while keeping everything else in the ad.
Check out the Turkish version:
And the German version:
And the Japanese version:
Are you spotting a trend here?
Many of the countries where the Roys have been edited out lag behind on LGBT rights – though its removal in France is baffling, given same-sex marriage was passed back in 2013.
Apple’s openly gay CEO Tim Cook was recently hosted by Indian PM Narendra Modi, who has declined to repeal the country’s ban on gay sex.
Section 377, the country’s colonial-era anti-gay law, was reinstated by the Supreme Court in 2013.
Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party MPs have consistently resisted bids to repeal the law, and in March a private members bill on the issue was voted down by a vote of 58 to 14.
