right target, wrong reason

The night of the election, when it became clear that Bush had won thanks to the religious fundamentalists, I remember telling Linette that within a month there would be a huge push to get both “Will and Grace” and “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” off television. Well, it looks like that’s exactly what’s happening. Donald Wildmon, the man behind the American Family Association, has just issued a fatwa. As of today, he’s asking his followers to start calling the executive officers at Procter and Gamble, an advertiser on both shows, boycotting their products, and spreading the message among their fellow sheep. Here’s part of the email he sent:

Procter & Gamble, maker of Crest, Tide and Pampers, is the leading sponsor of two TV programs that continually push the homosexual agenda.

The sitcom Will & Grace regularly promotes homosexuality and explicit sex-talk with jokes about male and female genitalia, masturbation, oral sex and even anal sex. The series’ two male stars are both homosexual. From the beginning, the series has been about nothing but sex.

Will & Grace is the program that showed two men passionately kissing each other.

According to Broadcasting & Cable online magazine, P&G was the top sponsor of Will & Grace between September 2003 and February 2004. P&G spent an astonishing $8.2 in sponsorship of this program promoting the homosexual agenda.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy depicts five homosexual men remaking the “cluttered, straight men of the world” so that they look, dress and act in the manner of the “cool” and, by implication, superior “gay” community. The program consistently seeks to validate and glorify the homosexual lifestyle.

Between September 2003 and February 2004, P&G spent $2,000,000 in sponsorship of this program promoting the homosexual agenda.

Remember that P&G pulled all their advertising support from Dr. Laura’s program after a complaint from the homosexual community. P&G will support programs that are pro-homosexual, but refuse to support programs that tell the truth about homosexuality!

That so-called “truth” that Dr. Laura (she’s a doctor of physical education, by the way) was this — she repeatedly called gays and lesbians deviant “biological errors.”

I don’t think they’ll make much headway, as both of the shows they’re targeting appear to be very profitable, but I still don’t think it makes sense to let the let Wildmon’s misguided crusade go unchallenged. So, if you get a chance, please send P&G a note congratulating them for not buckling under the pressure of a very vocal fringe group (who probably don’t use toothpaste or detergent anyway)… Personally, I don’t care much for P&G or Will and Grace (Queer Eye is OK on occasion though), but I refuse to let these homophobic assholes strong-arm corporations into towing the fundamentalist line.

Of course, I have absolutely no problem whatsoever suggesting that you then turn around and boycott P&G for their support of Fox News.

(I wonder if anyone’s ever nominated Donald Wildmon for a Queer Eye make-over.)

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10 Comments

  1. Tamara
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 7:33 am | Permalink

    “The series’ two male stars are both homosexual.”

    Not that this is even remotely the most important point here, but they should get their facts (ahem) straight. Eric McCormack is married with child, and Sean Hayes is decidedly ambiguous, at best, about his sexuality (although many fans speculate that he is, indeed, gay).

    Again, not an enormous issue, but a lie nonetheless. And why include this point in their plea even if it were true? I guess it’s not just “promoting homosexuality” that this group finds unacceptable — contributing to the livelihood of homosexuals is also a sin.

    Maybe that explains why the haters don’t want gays in the military — they don’t want the government to pay gays’ salaries.

  2. Jim
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 8:34 am | Permalink

    What do Will and Grace and the American Family Association have in common? “From the beginning, [both have] been about nothing but sex.”

    And who gave the AFA a copy of the homosexual agenda? Or did they figure out on their own that our diabolical plans include zhuzhing and moisturizing?

  3. Tamara
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 8:39 am | Permalink

    Good questions, Jim. Also, I always enjoy seeing another take on how to spell “zhuzh.”

  4. Tony Buttons
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 9:07 am | Permalink

    I think it might be my fault. As per Mark’s instruction, I’ve been hollowing out hotel Bibles and inserting copies of The Gay Agenda (the illustrated, young-adult version). I’m sorry, but I didn’t know it was a secret.

    As for this thing with P&G, it’s confusing. I’m not comfortable supporting a huge multi-national corporation and their efforts to clutter the world with their advertisements, but at the same time I don’t want it to be the fundies who bring them to their knees. I’d much rather progressives had put the pressure on them first (to remove their Swiffer ads from the O’Reilly Factor). Now, I’m all confused. Part of me wants to buy Tide to support their support of a show that I hate… Fuck.

  5. arun
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 11:48 am | Permalink

    not to diminish the larger and more amusing issue, let us not continue promoting the idea that the religious right “won” the election for Bushco. http://slate.com/id/2109275 and other analysts have shown that a number of factors played into the outcome – and that the largest voting block increase that Bush received came not from frequent church-goers, but from older people earning between 100 and 400 thousand dollars a year.

  6. Posted November 19, 2004 at 6:06 pm | Permalink

    Informative and helpful post; thank you Mark.

  7. Ken
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 9:36 pm | Permalink

    Tony Buttons, your post made me laugh. Well crafted comedy!!

  8. Ken
    Posted November 19, 2004 at 9:38 pm | Permalink

    PS – Can you email a copy of the Gay Agenda to me?

  9. mark
    Posted November 21, 2004 at 2:20 pm | Permalink

    I don’t think I’ll have time to blog about it today (too much real work to do), but I understand that the Washington Post ran a very homophobic ad yesterday that

  10. Jeremy Holland
    Posted March 9, 2005 at 12:07 am | Permalink

    Regarding “Grace and Will”

    From the way I see it, let me put it this way: if I shared the same agenda as the so called religious right, this show would be the answer to my prayers.

    And my secret name for the show would be “Disgrace and Ill Will.”

    07 March 2005

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