Apple-Approved 'Anti-Gay' iPhone App Sparks Outrage

UPDATE: The Manhattan Declaration app has been removed from Apple's App Store.

As PinkNews reported, Apple seems to have pulled the controversial app, a decision that comes after thousands signed an online petition protesting the app and asking for its removal.

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There's been no shortage of controversy over apps Apple has see fit to ban from its App Store.

Now the Cupertino company has sparked outrage over an app it did approve, Manhattan Declaration, that is a "call of Christian conscience" inviting users to take a stand against gay marriage by signing a 4,700-word "declaration" penned by Christian clergy, scholars, and others.

The Manhattan Declaration, the text of which is included in the app, "speaks in defense of the sanctity of life, traditional marriage, and religious liberty," according to its creators. The app "issues a clarion call to Christians to adhere firmly to their convictions in these three areas," and allows users to add their signatures to the declaration.

Users can also take a short, 4-question survey that includes questions such as "Do you support same sex relationships?" or "Do you support the right of choice regarding abortion?" Answer "yes" to either of the above and you'll be told you replied incorrectly.

Apple awarded the app a rating of "4+," which means the App Store found the app to contain "no objectionable material."

On the other hand, apps like "Obama Trampoline," the Bush-lampooning "My Shoe," or iBoobs, which shows pixelated jiggling breasts, have previously been banned, in some cases for poking fun at political figures, and in others, for their sexually suggestive content.

Bloggers have fired back at Apple--and the app's creators.

The app fosters "homophobia and extreme anti-choice views," writes Change.org, which blasts the principles spelled out in the declaration for "[boiling] LGBT people down to little more than deviant cretins." PinkNews calls the app "anti-gay." One website created a petition asking Apple to remove the app.

The creators of the Manhattan Declaration responded to the "radical liberals" with its own blog post, saying, "These radicals often pollute the debate with ranting. They rant about 'equal rights,' without explaining how homosexuality deserves it, 'women's rights,' without explaining how women have a right to kill their child, and even 'hateful Christians,' without showing instances where we hate."

Apple's App Store approval policies are notoriously murky and infamous for being inconsistently applied. For example, the App Store recently rejected political cartoonist Mark Fiore's work on the grounds that it ridiculed public figures, then later decided to accept his work. Thousands of "suggestive" apps were also removed, without warning, from the App Store earlier this year.

Do you think Apple should keep or remove the app? Weigh in below.

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Comments

[CAMBEL]

03:35 PM on 11/29/2010

I love that the latest refrain from bigots is "You are dissagreeing with our bigotry and that makes you a bigot."

Give me a break, these folks are SO focused on gays, supposedly because of their religion, and yet funnily enough I would be willing to bet all of them wear clothing of mixed fiber, eat pork or shellfish etc... Isn't it funny how their religion is SO important to them when it allows them to be bigots, but they ignore huge other parts of it?

[j hig]

10:59 AM on 11/29/2010

The Manhattan group had a right to create that app. The progressive crowd had a right to protest it. Apple has a right to remove the app. We all have a right to complain and whine about whatever part of it we don't like. HuffPo even has a right to remove this comment if they want to! Boo Feakin' Hoo to all of it! :-)

As long as it's not the government suppressing any of it, no rights have been infringed. However, I am a little surprised that a simple plain statement like "I think gay marriage is wrong," which at least half the country would agree with, is enough to be viewed as hateful and enough to ban an app. I am sure that an app saying "I think Christians are wrong" would be just fine with Apple.

[Vieux Charles]

07:29 PM on 11/28/2010

half a million signatures can't be wrong

http://www.manhattandeclaration.org/home.aspx

[Radical Logic]

01:17 PM on 11/28/2010

The Manhattan Declaration, and all of its supporters, are terrorists.

[GA MG]

06:09 AM on 12/02/2010

Can you cite specific ways in which the Manhattan Declaration is "terrorist"? If you haven't read it through, yourself, you can find it at http://manhattandeclaration.org/the-declaration/read.aspx.

[AmericanLeslie]

01:01 PM on 11/28/2010

A communication enterprise that is forever gloating about its commitment to bringing people from all walks of life together while simultaneously selling products that encourange divisiveness and intolerance is too much of a contradiction for me. In a nutshell, it says to Apple's gay and pro-choice employees, investors and consumer bases "Design, invest in and buy our products but just overlook the fact that we're also willing to desgn and sell applications for folks who want to subjegate you in the name of their religious beliefs!"

[BrettGleason]

10:02 AM on 11/28/2010

Aside from the ignorance and complacence shown here by Apple they also show a huge lack of common sense in letting this app through, not just in the politically correct sense but in simply knowing who their customers are. Users of the iphone are more liberal (!!) than not, they should have known this would spark outrage, as it should !! Stupid, stupid, stupid Apple :( BOO !!

[MADelyn Woe]

03:20 AM on 11/28/2010

Don't get me wrong, but I first have one thing here to witch about is that the apple has my rainbow on it and my rainbow is not an icon for political or sexual possession. It is an act of nature that I enjoy looking at when it happens. All those colors are not anybody's colors to own and put on a this is mine category. Just like all the gangs and their bandanna colors. Those are not yours to possess as much as it it yours to say your brand of underwear are specifically your brand and only your gang can wear them.
And this rights issue....hooray for the lobbyists but shite mahn the ERA is still waiting for it's 38 states and it was your great grand ma ma's bra that burned back then and still she is waiting and maybe in intensive care for ratification. Is that not hogging the apple pie?

[PlanetSpinz]

02:41 AM on 11/28/2010

Yet there is no outrage about the free bully pulpits Facebook, Twitter and Youtube give Manhattan Declaration to incite violence against LGBT people worldwide. Chuck Colson (Watergate convicted felon) and Maggie Gallagher (National Organization for Marriage inequality just named a hate group by Southern Poverty Law Center, and preachers from Uganda who are getting a kill-gays bill started the Manhattan Declaration for the sole purpose of justifying genocide against LGBT people. They all have free bully pulpits to incite violence, and SPLC connected their violent propaganda with the increased violence against LGBT Americans. Where is the outrage about that?

[Neontom69]

09:59 PM on 11/27/2010

Typical. When someone doesn't like something, the call to BAN it is immediately shouted like it's the end of society at the tip of your fingers. This has to stop.
If people have the right to petition FOR gay marriage (which I support, but only because it's just not fair), then people have the right to petition AGAINST it, too.
And if there's an app for it, it's not gonna make me feel "anti-gay" any more than an app for following the NBA is gonna make me like basketball (I don't). No logic in that thought process at all.
I don't get any apps on my BB that aren't free anyway, so whatever. That's all I got.

[SmallGovConservative]

10:43 PM on 11/27/2010

I couldn't agree more. Everyone has the right to express there views - whether for or against gay marriage.

[Terence Ng]

12:30 AM on 11/28/2010

Yeah, they have that right...when the government is involved. That is what the First Amendment is about. It DOESN'T guarantee you the right to say whatever you want without being harassed or censored by private institutions or the public. It is up to the taste of the hosting party, and in this case, Apple has removed it. I would expect no less if a racist application went up, even though, by this logic, a racist app wouldn't force anyone to be any more racist than they already are.

[RaymondLuxuryYacht]

10:17 AM on 11/28/2010

People have the right to express their views. That's exactly what happened here via the petition. Apple banned the app as they recognized that it was hurting their relationship with their customers. No rights were infringed in any way, shape, or form here.

[Bushwhacked]

09:08 PM on 11/27/2010

What the religious radicals don't seem to understand by trying to push their rules on everyone else is that they are the radicals. Live by example and mind your business.

[lemealone]

09:24 PM on 11/27/2010

live by example and don't ban their stupid app.

[Bushwhacked]

03:59 AM on 11/28/2010

Get lost.

[Brian OHara]

06:03 PM on 11/27/2010

I wish people would stop talking about Homophobia. It is the pureset hate and should be called what it is. I heard a story from a close friend who went to High School and is friends of a Sheriffs Deputy in a local county. A fellow officer stopped a 17/18 year-old kid for driving on a suspended license and a blown tailight. This kid also apparent also apparently had a lisp. The deputy decided to have fun when they got him back to the station. They put him in a cell with some particularly nasty rednecks who tortured the kid. His screams filled the jail. And all the deputies were laughing there heads off. I don't think torture is funny.

[Aaron Cogan]

05:24 PM on 11/27/2010

I think we're all missing the bigger point here: These medieval zealots are using technology! Just imagine the iFlogger, or a truly Auto- auto de fé! (Although, it is going to be pretty funny when he nails his e-thesis to the door through his iPhone.)

What would iJesus Do?

[zbig]

04:47 PM on 11/27/2010

Apple has removed the offending app! Confirmed by The Advocate. It's been pulled out of the appstore:

http://www.advocate.com/News/Daily_News/2010/11/25/Apple_Approves_Antigay_App/

[Random User]

03:33 PM on 11/27/2010

I think this issue highlights why it's a losing game for Apple to try and pre-approve all iOS applications. They're going to approve some app somewhere which offends someone. It's silly to call this a "free speech" issue since the very nature of Apple's control over the app "ecosystem" (ugh!) is a perfect example of "prior restraint". In this case, I see no reason to boycott Apple since -- it appears -- that they pulled the app. Also, this is hardly a mainstream app and I doubt anyone who loaded it onto a device was seriously swayed to the developers' positions from any other point of view.

[RaymondLuxuryYacht]

10:35 AM on 11/28/2010

I'm amazed that Apple is able to exercise this level of control over the platform. If Microsoft had tried this with Windows the DOJ would have slapped them silly.

[Random User]

10:55 AM on 11/29/2010

I think it speaks to the market share, alternatives (Android, Blackberry, etc.) and the fact that although Apple controls the platform in a restrictive manner, they don't restrict which applications because they compete with Apple apps.

[Strza]

03:14 PM on 11/27/2010

If you are working within the proprietary world of Apple, you will be subjected to the companies idiocy in a much more pronounced way than working on an open platform. If you don't like their policies, don't use their products - simple as that.