If you missed any stories of One Million Mom’s (OMM) Christian conservative activism over the years, here a quick refresher: One Million Moms is Christian family organization that claims they’re “fed up with the trash in today’s media,”, and a project/outshoot of the American Family Association (AFA), an anti-gay rights, anti-abortion, pro-traditional values conservative group with a storied history of targeting big corporations for supposedly walking outside the line of societal behavior they deem appropriate or in line with their Christian principles. The groups have criticized or launched boycotts against dozens of companies or groups for endorsing what the AFA calls a “homosexual agenda.”
It really isn’t so much the boycotts themselves that are worthy of much worry from any progressively-mined person because they have almost always failed and, in failing, dragged even further down into the pits the last remaining remnants of 1980′s-era ‘culture warriors’ still vocal today.
No, what bothers me is the essence – the core foundational beliefs upon which these organizations were created and subsequently have survived upon which worries me most. Why? Well, the American Family Association has successfully survived since 1977 and boasts a whopping $14,186,203 in funding which really stirs the immortal elephant in the room:
Why are gay rights groups, choice groups, the entertainment industry, modern companies, etc. fighting small battles in terms of gay visibility, or civil violations, or even enforcement of any set standards of ‘profanity’ in 2013? Why are they not simply winning those battles as if swatting a fly and then turning immediately to calling these groups out as outside the mainstream, calling them out as radical groups with archaic ideas that, to be quite blunt, a very small and highly geographically-concentrated group of people in this nation still adhere to?
As I said, the problem isn’t so much the failed boycotts, laughable they be, but the mere fact that contemporary Americans living in our modern era must somehow cater to culture warriors fighting for a culture that, to be blunt, few modern Americans would even recognize if ever it came into being (or ‘back’ by their definition). This is especially true for young Americans, millenials, and Americans under 40 who, after the inevitable passing of today’s current elderly, will make up an American majority in which nearly everyone has gay co-workers, friends, family members, fellow students, etc. in their everyday lives?
The AFA, OMM, and other conservative groups cry foul at the mere visual portrayal of gay people on television, so much so that the founding of the group GLAAD was made as a reactionary decision of gay rights activists to combat negative portrayals on television and other forms of entertainment.
Which I always thought begged the question – if gay people can’t be on TV with any regularity, what is the alternative? What is the proposed alternative to not allowing the portrayal of normal gay Americans living in fairly standard, many times blue collar, homes who are paying taxes, following the laws, serving in the military, and yes, even throwing a neighborhood BBQ or two. What is your Alternative American Family Association?
Seeing as these groups often glamorize and cherish the 1950′s-era standard of morality and entertainment industry permissiveness, I would venture to say that if art mimics the culture of the time, then I’d not have to look past a Normon Rockwell painting to find a gay person, that is, there would be none.
So One Million moms, will you boycott this ‘obscene’ ad from K-mart just like your last one?
- Christian Bentzen