A war of anti- and pro-gay graffiti has broken out in Wanaka, after a retailer chose to denigrate gays as part of a protest about restricted holiday trading hours over Easter. Following the Wanaka Sports Centre's posting of a notice reading: "What a pathetic country this is, which allows two poofters to marry and adopt children legally yet stays with an old religious law that curtails everyone else's freedom of action," local gay man Nathan Brown painted a retaliatory slogan on the shopfront. Brown's slogan read: "Gay OK, Global Aotearoa." "I felt the sign required some sort of response to say it wasn't okay to put up something as divisive as that sign," says Brown. "The owner of the Wanaka Sports Centre really acted irresponsibly and without regard for the real people that live here who were insulted by the use of a derogatory term like ‘poofter' and the suggestion that the just acknowledgment of one group's human rights somehow combine with Easter Sunday trading laws to make this a 'pathetic' country." Brown says he believes the owners are alienating a section of society that may otherwise have sympathized with them. "If they think that they haven't offended any of their own potential customers then they should think again, gay people and their partners fish and play sports, too." The shop owners have so far refused to make any comment on the incident. Wanaka police say they have not received any complaints. Despite the wording of the anti-gay message gay couples cannot legally adopt children in New Zealand.