Sacha Baron Cohen's controversial hit comedy Bruno reinforces negative homosexual stereotypes and "decreases the public's comfort with gay people", the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) has said.
Jarrett Barrios, president of the US campaigning group, said he was particularly concerned with a scene in which the gay Austrian fashionista presents a talkshow audience with photographs of himself and his adopted infant son in a hot tub with two fornicating men.
"Can this help the gay families across the country who continue to be reduced to political punching bags at the ballot box?" he said.
"Clearly, the film-makers wanted to use satire to highlight and challenge homophobia. But their film also reinforces troubling attitudes about gay people in ways that run counter to the intentions of the film-makers.
"The movie repeatedly builds entire scenes around stock stereotypes and situations that make gay people and families the butt of crude jokes. I can't help but think of all the teenage kids already getting bullied, beat up and ridiculed for being – or for being thought to be – gay. For these kids, this movie will give their tormentors one more word in the anti-gay lexicon of slurs: Bruno."
The GLAAD statement will come as a blow to studio Universal Pictures as producers had courted the organisation by inviting its staff members to advanced screenings and seeking their input. Barrios told the Hollywood Reporter that GLAAD "shared a number of concerns, and unfortunately, the scenes that we had the biggest concerns about remained in the film".
Universal maintains Bruno is a "satire that uses provocative comedy to powerfully shed light on the absurdity of many kinds of intolerance and ignorance, including homophobia".
"While any work that dares to address relevant cultural sensitivities might be misinterpreted by some or offend others, we believe the overwhelming majority of the audience will understand and appreciate the film's inarguably positive intentions, which we've seen demonstrated whenever we have shown it," the studio has said.
In the UK, British gay, lesbian and bisexual charity Stonewall said its officers had seen the movie but would not be making any public comment on it.
The GLAAD statement is unlikely to affect Bruno's box-office success, though. It opened on both sides of the Atlantic on Friday and is currently sitting pretty atop the US chart with a $30.4m estimated opening. It is also expected to debut at No 1 in the UK when weekend results are announced later.
