We were watching Hockenberry(sp?) last night and he had on Jerry Falwell and Tinky Winky. I was surprised at how rational and sane Falwell sounded. He also had a sense of humor, which I always appreciate. While I don't agree with his religious stance on homosexuality, he was not at all the foaming at the mouth bigot I expected. He said that his magazine said nothing that hadn't already been said in the POst, Times, etc. already about the adoption of Tinky Winky by the gay community, and that because theirs was a Christian magazine their approach was that parents should have the information about the characters. There were no calls for boycotts or protests--at least by him. He makes no apologies for being a fundamentalist about his view of gayness as sinful but admitted he had never met Tinky Winky personally. We were more impressed by him than by Hockenberry's rather condescending questioning.
Someone made the point that gays adopted Judy Garland, too, but that watching the Wizard of Oz is not thought to affect a child's developing sexuality. And then someone said, "Yeah, and what about Bert and Ernie! They live together!" ANd of course, as I mentioned at DAR, there's sweet, gentle Mr. Rogers and his strange zippy sweaters. Seems to me that if Tinky WInky is nice and kind and good, all the better.
You know what scares me?? If the religious right and the good old boys begin attacking an apparently sweet asexual alien because of his mannerisms, what more intolerant behaviors are we again teaching our young? ALready one of the worst things young boys do to each other is label another "gay". When will we learn to judge by actions and character instead of color and voice and testosterone emissions? |
