This one will probably quickly become an argument over whether or not I'm homophobic and gay-bashing, but I hope for a serious and honest discussion here. Those that want to bash, cry phobic, or otherwise want to turn this thread into something that doesn't belong here at Joe User should move their conversations and responses elsewhere.
Over the last few years especially Hollywood, via movies and television, seems to be working very hard to help make being gay much more acceptable... There was Ellen Degeneres on her TV sitcom with the "Is she, or isn't she?" question that distracted that show right off the network (because the show stopped being funny while worrying over whether or not being gay was acceptable for a lead character in a TV show). There's been Will and Grace, again with characters in a lead role that are openly gay. And there's been bunches of movies that have all wound up including characters that turned out to be gay.
But in the last few years especially, it seems that Hollywood has latched onto a formula that says that just about any show that will be on TV has to include a gay character.
Borrowing a bit, and/or paraphrasing a conversation from another site on the net, there is this exchange about the new show Love Monkey, on CBS:
i didn't catch the friend was gay until the end.
My wife claims she knew... but how'd she figured that one out?
which was answered by another net citizen with this statement (which somewhat echoed my thoughts as I thought about this article):
... apparently there is a new law that all new shows must have a gay character, so she knew to be looking...
Over the last few days there was also a protest/ruckus raised because apparently American Idol was showing itself to be homophobic over using footage of a person of questionable gender. A he, that looked much more like a she, was paraded in front of the panel of judges, which resulted in the judges having a conversation after the audition ended asking just what they had just seen. That resulted in a group protesting the treatment of the individual and gays being very unhappy about the homophobic American Idol.
Coming back on point though, am I wrong in perhaps theorizing that Hollywood has been clearly pushing an agenda of acceptance of gays onto the U.S.A. (and the world) through it's products in the last several years?
I'm not saying that we should treat anyone poorly, but I personally think we don't need Hollywood out in front mainstreaming homosexuality. Showing that we should treat everyone the same is fine, but including a gay character "just because" seems to be a sign that Hollywood is pushing a message here. Are we coming back to a point that any and every "minority" group will have to be represented on every TV show and movie that Hollywood releases or creates? Do we have to have the token Black character, the token Asian, Hispanic/Latino, differently abled individual, etc.?
It seems more and more that is where we are headed, except we don't go there, because that it is too obvious, and is in and of itself racist and discriminatory in nature. Hollywood doesn't play that game, even if they want to, because it is so obvious, but they will slowly but surely mainstream homosexuality while ignoring the fact they have been ignoring minorities of all sorts year after year.
Food for thought, or just phobic rhetoric outta the right here at JU? You tell me.
