[Rad]

Hi all,
I'm very disappointed, sickened and upset to find sponsored links to "Harley St Psychoterapist" and "Sayge (Counselling)" at the bottom of your page "Guys seeking Guys".
How on earth could you let it happen? Do you really think that gay people are just a bunch of freaks who need psychoterapist's help? Why don't you have these links on "Guys seeking Girls" or "Girls seeking Guys" pages?
I personally find it very disturbing and upsetting and will look at the possibility of taking legal action against Gumtree, if the links are not removed.

Regards,
Rad

[Smiley]

[londoner]

Hi there,

We don't choose the links - they're automatically supplied by our partner (Google) based on the page content and who bids in their system for what words.

I can't see the ads you mention there right now, the ones there are for eg gay dating which seems ok. Be sure this is not any deliberate action on our part. If it keeps happening, please email support with the link or a screenshot of the advertisers and we will sort it.

[Rad]

Hi Smiley,
I will consider your suggestions Smiley (not!).
Rad

[Rad]

Hi Moderator,
"Harley St Psychoterapist" (more offensive one) has disappeared, but http://www.sayge.com/sayge_content.html is still on.
Fair enough. The links are supplied by Google; but there should be somebody on your part to check them and remove unappropriate ones.
The whole thing probably wouldn't come across offensive, if the same links were found on "straight pages".
Rad

[Rad]

Please don't tell me you coming back to the UK!

[k_lifter]

[Sayge]

Sayge (Psychotherapy & Counselling) is a provider of gay affirmative counselling and psychotherapy services in Berkshire & Central London. Links to Sayge's website - http://www.sayge.com - can be found on a number of different websites including LGB specific sites such as Stonewall and Gay to Z. It is for that reason that the link may have appeared on the 'Guys seeking Guys' page on Gumtree.
Sayge refutes any suggestion that LGB people are

[abey_wisehead]

In fact, we work with organisations in order to actively challenge homophobia and raise awareness on issues of diversity. Nonetheless, as LGB people have traditionally been pathologised by mainstream services it is important to ensure that those individuals who may wish to access counselling and psychotherapy services are made aware of the gay affirmative services that are available to them to ensure that they have an informed choice.[/quote]

One of the problems of being gay in a diverse, free and tolerant society is having to put up with those who spout suchh gobbledegook.

If you are raising awareness on "issues of diversity" then you are by default raising awareness of the comparative values of the diverse which simply further categorises us in the minds of others and feeds the homophobic with ammunition because of our differences which should of course be a private and collective matter for us and irrelevant in the public context.

"Gay affirmative services?" Oh purleeze, are we really so sad that we need this crap? We fought hard for equality and now we have it if it becomes apparent that a higher proportion of us cannot cut the mustard as social equals then so be it. We do not need others underlining it in order to exploit us for their own ends.

Yes, we have been traditionally pathologised by mainstream services but we are not anymore, the world has changed and it is illegal.

Now let me put a question to you. How on earth do you expect gays as individuals to be respected as equals in an adult society when you keep babying us with "gay affirmative services?"

The ghetto created by such services is no different from the apartheid created by the homophobic before it became outlawed. It is not empowering or helpful. It is humiliating and holding us back.

[k_lifter]

[englishman]