SBS has refused to air an anti-gay marriage ad during its Sydney Mardi Gras weekend coverage, but Channels 7 and 9 had no qualms about airing it while the parade was underway. The Australian Marriage Forum claims it paid SBS to air the ad but it refused without explanation.

The 40-second ad titled “Think of the Child” aimed to be broadcast during the LGBTI parade. It claims gay and lesbian parents are denying their children their birth right to be raised by a father and a mother by demanding for gay marriage to be recognised.

It features the group’s president David van Gend, who introduces himself in the ad as simply a “Family Doctor,” claiming that the “so-called marriage equality” is forcing a child to miss out on having a set of a mother and a father. “That’s not equality for the kids who miss out. That’s not marriage,” he insists.

The group’s parishioners have helped raised $21,000 for the anti-same sex marriage ad to have its airtime during the weekend on SBS, Channel 7 and Channel 9. Somehow it was important for the group to air the ad during the Sydney Mardi Gras parade, where many members of the LGBTI community would be tuning in.

“Society must choose between meeting the demands of a few noisy adults or honouring the birth-right of all children, wherever possible, to the love of their own mother and their own mother,” the description of the ad reads. It also claims that the gay marriages would deliberately create motherless and fatherless families.

Unfortunately for the group, SBS decided against airing the ad. Van Gend said they received a message from the SBS management, which read, “We choose not to run this TVC for the Marriage Forum during the Mardi Gras telecast.”

The government-run network did not allegedly give explanation why it decided not to run the ad. “As I see it, this is a case of censorship by a public broadcaster of even the mildest expression of ‘unacceptable opinion’ on same-sex marriage. This is a disgrace,” van Geld fumed.

Online commenters have lauded SBS for refusing to air the TVC. Seven and Nine, on the other hand, were criticised for allowing the ad to be broadcast.

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