1 Greek TV fined over male kissing 11/03
February 13, 2011 – UK Gay News
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Gay Youth in Athens to Stage Public Valentine’s ‘Kiss-In’ – Move follows self censorship of gay kisses in Kate Perry and Pink videos by MTV Greece and MAD TV
Athens – Greek youngsters are getting fed up that a male-female kiss in public is accepted in society, but a same-sex kiss is not. And one Athens group, the recently-formed Colour Youth, aims to do something about it – on St. Valentine’s Day. “On Monday, February 14th, the hetero-normal St. Valentine’s Day, we defend our kisses in public, in heart of central Athens,” the youth group said in a statement today.
“For a lot of us youth with sexual orientation that differs from society’s accepted norm, just the idea of a kiss in daylight terrifies us. Our feelings of guilt regarding this totally human act is something that we want to change. The between mother and child, between father and gay son, our first teenage kiss, the kiss goodnight, the comforting kiss between friends are just some of the kinds of kisses we exchange every day. Our kisses express passion, love, tenderness, and friendship. For us, every kiss deserves respect.”
The whole idea follows some self-censorship of same-sex kisses in music videos by two television stations, MTV Greece and MAD TV, explained Stefanos Agelastos, an organiser of Athens Pride and a founder of Colour Youth. He said that the kisses in Katy Perry’s Firework and Pink’s Raise Your Glass had prompted Colour Youth to produce their own video attacking the censorship. [The video is in Greek. but English subtitles are available by clicking the “CC” button on the embedded player]
The censorship, Mr. Agelastos told UK Gay News, was “a no-reason-discrimination from the part of the TV channels”. “Six years ago that the National Broadcasting Council fined a channel for broadcasting of a gay kiss on TV,” he explained. “But Council of State cancelled the fine, in what was seen as a unique human rights point of view.”
