Home & Away lesbian kiss between actresses Esther Anderson and Katie Bell cut by Seven
By Amanda Meade
March 28, 2009 12:00am
CHANNEL 7 has censored a lesbian kissing scene in its popular family soapie Home and Away after a viewer backlash.
Since the lesbian story line began two weeks ago, 100,000 viewers have turned off and complaints have been flooding in. The now-muted kiss will air on Tuesday night.
The decision was taken to play down the scene after complaints from conservative lobby groups in media reports were followed by complaints from viewers, The Australian reports.
"They (Home and Away) continue to market to kids and they continue to develop quite sexualised plot lines," Pro-Family Perspectives director Angela Conway said earlier this month.
"The plot lines that young kids and teenagers should be presented with should be about really authentic relationships that are not just sexualised."
Producers were forced to cut some of the more intimate close-up images of policewoman Charlie Buckton and deckhand Joey Collins sharing a passionate kiss after dancing together on a boat.
The original scene, played by actors Esther Anderson and Katie Bell, was no more intimate than any kiss shared by a heterosexual couple, sources said.
Some mothers contacted the network to say they didn't want their children exposed to same-sex relationships in a family show. Home and Away is screened at 7pm and is rated PG.
The show is popular internationally, especially with younger viewers, and attracts an Australian audience of more than one million every week night.
Anderson had said she had no problem with the scene.
"You learn pretty much everything at school," she said. "I don't think it's like I'm lifting the lid on something they don't already know about.
"To me there's no difference - love's love. The fact that your partner's the same sex is no different. You just want to be loved."