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But the show’s legacy is what he’s most proud of: “I hope some gay kids’ parents learned something and I hope some gay kids, and adults too, maybe felt a little more hope for happy, successful lives when they saw us being embraced by the culture.” The show’s original food and drink expert Ted Allen fondly remembers the outrageously good fun of “throwing a hideous sectional sofa off of a second-floor apartment balcony, piece by piece …burning a straight guy’s toupee on his barbecue grill”.
MAN GETS 15 YEARS FOR BURNING GAY FLAG TV
And, crucially, they were not fictional characters created for the amusement of straight TV audiences, but real people. It allowed the kind of conservative Middle Americans who’d never knowingly met, let alone hung out with, an openly gay person to get to know five of them. Ellen DeGeneres had come out six years earlier on her self-titled sitcom and Will & Grace had just aired its fifth season, but Queer Eye for the Straight Guy offered something different. As the series’ original “culture vulture” Jai Rodriguez told the Hollywood Reporter shortly before the reboot’s 2018 launch: “In 2003, being out was political.”īack then, gay people were visible in mainstream American culture, but only just. That’s not because it wasn’t great television – it always was – but because it was also very much of its time.
When the reboot was first mooted in 2017, even those of us who remembered and liked the original struggled to summon real enthusiasm. A team of five gay men hustle-bustle their way into the life of a (usually) cis heterosexual man and make over all aspects in preparation for a big life event, such as a marriage proposal or work promotion. This is a case where sensitivity training could have value since the perpetrators are young, and it’s been shown that attitudes toward LGBTQ people can change.The format remains essentially unchanged since the show’s first 2003 to 2007 iteration, then titled Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. I agree with Rickards that the incident is sickening, and a suspension is merited. There’s got to be consequences for that.” “We have one rule in our program, and that is not to embarrass yourself, your family or your team,” he said. Rickards said that in his seven years as coach he has sought to stop players from bullying. We need to condemn hatred and bigotry wherever we see it.” “Looking at the video, whether if it was intended as a joke or as a serious and broad threat against LGBTQ individuals, it’s still a reprehensible act. ”We are having police look at it to ensure that there is no criminal implications,” spokesman Ben Horsley told ABC News in an interview on Tuesday. The Granite School District, of which Kearns High is a part, said it’s investigating the incident and that two players were involved, including a 15-year-old incoming freshman. Someone in the video is heard saying “all gays die.”Īnother player reposted the video before it came to the attention of administrators and athletics staff. “It’s potentially a hate crime, so it sickens me.”Ī player posted a video on Snapchat last week where someone lights an LGBTQ Pride flag on fire and laughs. “There’s no place for that in our program at all, and it won’t be tolerated,” Matt Rickards, head coach of the Kearns High School team told a local TV station. A Utah high school football coach suspended two players who burned an LGBTQ Pride flag on social media, with one heard to say “all gays die.”