Aussie Maccas ok with gay

Aussie Maccas ok with gay

Fast food giant McDonald’s says it does not block gay and lesbian websites on its in-store ‘family friendly’ free WiFi service.

Gay and lesbian community groups in New Zealand were angered when it was revealed the restaurant chain was was blocking websites including Rainbow Youth, the Gay Auckland Business Association, PFLAG, trans support group Agender, and gay and lesbian news site GayNZ.com

Following the backlash McDonald’s New Zealand granted access to the sites, but is still in discussion with GayNZ.com which they claim contains explicit advertising that doesn’t fit the company’s family-friendly policy.

McDonald’s Australia corporate communications manager Laura Keith told the Star Observer Australian McDonald’s restaurants have offered customers free WiFi for around two years, and said no such blocks apply to sites providing they don’t include material deemed inappropriate in a family-friendly environment.

“McDonald’s is a family restaurant chain, our policy is that content must be suitable for a child to view,” she said.

Keith spot-checked a number of gay and lesbian news websites and found they were accessible through McDonald’s servers, however popular gay dating site Gaydar is not available.

McDonald’s New Zealand – which started offering customers free WiFi in December – blamed an automatic filtering software package for the incident, saying it was not an attempt to censor the gay community.

“McDonald’s would like to stress that it will actively discriminate against access to all sexually explicit and pornographic material in restaurants. We would also like to stress that it was never our intention to discriminate against the gay community,” the company stated in a response to GayNZ.com.

“Our review process is of course on-going and we’re absolutely happy to check out websites on a case-by-case basis, if our customers believe some have been unjustifiably blocked.”

You May Also Like

One response to “Aussie Maccas ok with gay”

  1. Hmmmmmm it still doesn’t make it okay to eat at Maccas…save that shame for the privacy of drive-thru