Family featured by Ireland’s ‘no’ campaign warn about posing for stock photos
A family who appeared on Ireland’s anti-gay marriage campaign after posing for stock photos have warned about posing for them.
The poster promoted the ‘no’ campaign, and was circulated online ahead of Ireland’s referendum last weekend which led to a resounding ‘yes’ vote on same-sex marriage. It read: “Children deserve a mother and a father… Vote no”, alongside a picture of a couple and their baby.
The family said they were “naive” to have posed for the photos, which were taken in return for a free photo shoot.
Despite the image being used legitimately, the couple spoke out to say that they disagreed with the message behind the ‘No’ campaign, run by the Mothers and Fathers Matter organisation.
The BBC reports that the couple featured had assumed the photos would be used “for a small magazine or website”.
They asked not to be named due to the sensitive nature of the debate surrounding same-sex marriage.
“The chances of having your photo selected out of all the hundreds of thousands available are pretty slim,” said the father to the BBC.
“The photo was not stolen from us… we have no claim over (or rights to) the picture, and we do not claim otherwise,” he added.
“We just wanted publicly to say that we disagreed with the No campaign and were unhappy about their use of our image, but we acknowledge that they’re allowed to do so.”
