'Gay’ graphics unbearable?

Press, 15 May 1985, Page 3

'Gay’ graphics unbearable?

PA Auckland Toy makers and wholesalers fear that a pamphlet featuring teddy bears performing homosexual acts will hurt sales. The pamphlet, produced by the Aids Support Network, illustrates precautions that homosexual men can take to stop the spread of the disease. A teddy bear manufacturer, Mr John Prowse. expected the pamphlet would have an adverse effect on sales. The House of Toys owner, Mrs Lynnis Burson, thought the association between bears and homosexuals would die down in about a

fortnight. “But my first reaction was, why do they have to drag a child’s toy into this?” said Mrs Burson. A spokesman for opponents of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill, Mr Barry Redd, thought the pamphlet was an “insult to all bears.” “You would never see a real bear doing what those bears in the illustrations were doing,” said Mr Reed. “There is nothing sacred any more.” The chairman of the Aids Support Network Trust Board, Ms Kate Leslie, said the pamphlet carried a wardgig that it contained

sexually explicit material. “It was factual in lay language and tried to handle the matter in a gentle way,” she said. “The pamphlet needed some graphics and I don’t think there were any great kinds of overtones in using teddy bears.” However, a week-end meeting of people opposed to the reform bill decided that the pamphlet condoned acts illegal under existing legislation and called on the Government to withdraw its recent $lOO,OOO grant to the network. The National member of Parliament for Invercargill, Mr Norman

Jones, who addressed the meeting in Mangere, said he would pass the call on to the Government. “I will never be able to look a teddy bear in the face again,” he said. The meeting, which erupted into occasionally fiery exchanges between supporters and opponents of the bill, heard Mr Jones say that 95 per cent of New Zealanders were against “legalising sodomy.” “We are not going to have the 5 per cent of lesbians and homosexuals ramming their filth down the throats of the other 95 per cent,” he said.