'Simpsons' Animates Gay Nuptials, and a Debate - NYTimes

[rndmprsn]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/21/arts/television/21simpsons.html?8hpib

watched this episode a few days ago...simpsons have been consistently one of my fave shows for over 15 years now, family guy has recently surpassed them as my fave cartoon, but there will always be a soft spot for the simpsons and me...ironic that the simpsons is on FOX!

----

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 20 - In the ongoing culture wars over whether gays should have the right to marry, an animated question reared its head on Sunday prime-time television: as goes "The Simpsons," does the nation go, too?

In an episode titled "There's Something About Marrying," a longtime character on Fox's 15-year hit - it was Marge Simpson's sister Patty Bouvier, a closely held secret until the 8 p.m. broadcast - came out of the closet while Homer Simpson conducted dozens of same-sex weddings after small-town Springfield legalized the unions in a bid to increase tourism. As television's longest-running situation comedy, "The Simpsons" is no stranger to hot-button social, religious and political issues, mocking wardrobe malfunctions, Hollywood liberals and born-again Christians, among other targets.

But when a show as mainstream and popular as this takes on one of the most divisive issues in American society, it is certain to attract attention. Bookmakers in the United States and England were taking bets as to which character would be revealed as homosexual, and whether there would be a kiss - a nod, perhaps, to the popular programming gimmick of having lesbian characters lock lips during sweeps periods like the current one.

But mostly, television experts, fans and advocates for gay marriage ruminated over the larger significance of the moment...

[Eric J in MN]

1. They quoted Marty Kaplan of Air America Radio

One of the benefits of Air America is that is provides pundits for other media outlets to quote or have on as guests.

"It's saying to those who demonize homosexuality, or what they call the homosexual agenda, anything from 'Lighten up' to 'Get out of town,' " said Marty Kaplan, associate dean of the University of Southern California's Annenberg School of Communication and host of a media show on the talk radio network Air America. "It sounds as though they're saying that what the religious right calls 'the homosexualist agenda,' as if it were creeping Satanism, is: these people are your neighbors in the Springfield that is America."

[rndmprsn]

2. yes i agree...

plus its nice when our reps and senators visit too, seems like on MSM all you get to see is either hillary clinton or joe lieberman etc...