An anti-LGBT group used a store in its hateful ad – until the store stepped in
(YouTube)
An anti-trans group has been forced to change its hateful advert after receiving a complaint – from the supermarket they filmed it in.
Keep MA Safe, an organisation built around campaigning in favour of a Massachusetts ballot initiative to purge gender identity from the state’s anti-discrimination law, released a scaremongering video this week to spread their views.
Like many anti-trans groups in the US, Keep MA Safe is focusing on bathrooms when the important issue at hand is discrimination.
(Getty)
The US government has contributed to this furore around bathrooms, having revoked guidance protecting transgender students in public schools, before the Department of Education announced it would no longer act on or investigate into complaints made by trans students about bathroom access.
Keep MA Safe’s advert showed a girl walking through a supermarket with a man, before she enters a bathroom.
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While on the toilet, the girl is shocked and distressed when she peers under the stall divider and sees a stereotypical man, who is meant to represent a trans woman.
It is not clear why the girl felt it appropriate to look under the divider.
The trans woman then goes to the sink to wash her hands and apply some lip gloss – both pretty normal activities in a bathroom.
The girl hands her a sequined high-heeled shoe which fell out of her bag, which would be nice, except she does so as if she’s scared of the heel giving her leprosy.
She then flees the bathroom, despite the woman seemingly having done nothing to alarm anyone.
The voice-over tells viewers: “Basic common sense is under attack.”
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With disgust dripping from their every word, the voice actor continues: “A little girl shouldn’t have to wonder why there’s a man using the women’s bathrooms.
“What many don’t understand is that a new law in Massachusetts makes it illegal to prevent a man from using the women’s bathrooms, locker rooms and changing facilities if he identifies as a woman.”
Insightful viewers noticed that the girl and man strolling through the store at the beginning of the advert were in reality walking through Wegmans, a supermarket chain in the US.
Keep MA Safe
They notified the chain, leading Jo Natale, a spokesperson for Wegmans Food Markets, to say that the store had known anything about the ad, and wanted it removed.
“It appears that the footage in the aisle and in the corridor leading to restrooms was shot in one of our stores, but it was done without our knowledge or permission,” she told INTO.
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“For this reason, we have sent a letter asking that they remove the video from their web site and anywhere else where it may be used.”
She clarified that only the first part of the ad was filmed in one of Wegmans’ stores, not the hideous bathroom scene.
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Keep MA Safe has failed to respond to the letter from Wegmans.
However, the group launched a new video on Thursday, in which the first part is taken out.
This is the second video. See the difference?
