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Apology sought over lesbian theater posters
Drama!: Gadjah Mada Theater has sought an apology for the spread of unapproved posters depicting two women kissing
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Drama!: Gadjah Mada Theatre has sought an apology for the spread of unapproved posters depicting two women kissing. The theatre denied speculation that lesbian ideas would be raise in its art performance. (tempo.co) (tempo.co)
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span class="inline inline-center">Drama!: Gadjah Mada Theater has sought an apology for the spread of unapproved posters depicting two women kissing. The theater denied speculation that lesbian ideas would be raise in its art performance. (tempo.co)
The Gadjah Mada Theater on Sunday clarified its position regarding posters for an art performance entitled Masih Ada Cinta D(ar)i Kampus Biru (There is Still Love on Blue Campus), which carried a picture of a lesbian couple, that had been shared with the public, drawing protest from some parties.
The deputy dean of the Gadjah Mada University's (UGM) School of Social and Political Sciences, Najib Azca, said the posters were actually not the official posters of Gadjah Mada Theater's art performance, and had not been approved by the university. The posters currently circulating, he said, were in fact draft posters, which had been rejected by the organizing committee of the art performance and already been replaced with new ones.
'The art performance was staged on Saturday evening. Posters created to promote the performance were revised ones but three days ago, the old version of the posters was suddenly circulating,' said Najib as quoted by tempo.co.
'They [Gadjah Mada Theater members] have ['¦] conveyed the chronology of the incident. They have also sought an apology because the draft poster triggered a public controversy,' he added.
'Concerning the ongoing spread of an unofficial poster for the art performance, Masih Ada Cinta D(ar)i Kampus Biru, ['¦] on social media, we the organizing committee of the art performance from Gadjah Mada Theater offer an apology to any parties who feel offended or who disagree with the circulating posters,' said the committee in a written statement sent to media on Sunday.
'We also offer an apology to the organizing committee of the university's 6oth Dies Natalis celebration for the circulation of the posters. The Dies Natalis organizing committee had forbidden us from circulating the posters. We also offer an apology to all UGM academics, including UGM Rectorate, Ashadi Siregar, the author of popular novel Cintaku di Kampus Biru [My Love on Blue Campus], UGM students and alumni,' the statement read.
Gadjah Mada Theater further said that its art performance had no intention of raising lesbianism as had been reported in the media.
'We also want to clarify that the art performance is not related at all with lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender [LGBT] people as has been suspected by the Dies Natalis organizing committee as the posters depict two women kissing [...]. We have no plans to change the content of the novel or the film, Cintaku di Kampus Biru. Once again, we had no intention of bringing up LGBT issues in the art performance,' said the theater's committee.
It further called on all parties to recall the posters from their social media accounts and stop circulating them. (ebf)
