Sun TV airs transphobic ad

BY ANDREA HOUSTON – An ad that activists have called transphobic, which ran in the National Post and the Toronto Sun during the Ontario election campaign, appears to now be airing on Sun TV.

On Oct 24, Savannah Garmon tweeted a link to a YouTube video of the ad about an hour after Queer Ontario’s Casey Oraa asked the Twitterverse to record a copy. The offending section starts at the 1:00 mark.

During the election, the Toronto Sun refused to apologize for running the ad, which outraged activists have called transphobic and misleading, in its Oct 2 edition but did say that it would not run it again.

The ad, from the Institute for Canadian Values, is a slightly modified version of a full-page ad that ran in the National Post on Sept 24 and Sept 28. Following a social media outcry, the Post issued an apology and stated that the proceeds from the ad sale would be donated to a queer charitable organization.

It is not known when the ad ran on Sun TV. No one was available for comment at the Toronto Sun at 11pm.

This is a developing story.

Follow Xtra reporter Andrea Houston on Twitter at @DreaHouston.

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