Help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own.
I always knew Sponge Bob was gay.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
So did Sponge Bob really say this?
I guess I paid more attention to this because I wacth this with my daughter all the time.
Here is the article
It's difficult to take this story seriously. On Thursday, CNN.com posted a story about the flap over the video. A nonprofit group, the We Are Family Foundation, created a music video of the song "We Are Family." In March the video will be sent to 61,000 schools across the country. The purpose of the video is to promote diversity, tolerance and acceptance. It's bringing together such superstars as SpongeBob SquarePants, Barney and Winnie the Pooh. You don't get such big talent easily.
The controversy is over a tolerance pledge on We Are Family Foundation's Web site. The pledge includes this overtly homosexual promise: "To help keep diversity a wellspring of strength and make America a better place for all, I pledge to have respect for people whose abilities, beliefs, culture, race, sexual identity or other characteristics are different from my own."
Talk about subversive. You might as well ship copies of Merchant/Ivory films to little boys in the Midwest.
The creator of the video says it's all a misunderstanding. The video is not about sexuality and that the religious right has confused We Are Family Foundation with WeAreFamily, which does support gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people.
That may be the case, but the damage is done. The We Are Family Foundation pledge does include sexual identity. What's wrong with that?
Children should be taught tolerance. I went to the Web site for the ChildCare Action Project and found a warning that SpongeBob and Barney are promoting gay tolerance. When did Christianity teach intolerance? Would it be better if children called some little boys "faggots?" That's what happens when children are not taught that all children are equal in humanity.
I have never watched an entire SpongeBob episode. I didn't know he was gay. But then again, I didn't know James E. McGreevey was gay. Was there a sign? Both of them do dress like Michael Douglas in "Falling Down."
But exactly what kind of adult reads sexual orientation into a cartoon character? I've been told that SpongeBob holds hands with his friend Patrick, a starfish. What do you call the coupling of a sponge and a starfish? Bisexual? Bivalve?
The truly prurient minds are the members of the Christian right who see sexuality around every corner. Gay people are not looking to convert anything, except perhaps loft space in the Williamsburg section of Brooklyn. The We Are Family Foundation should consider making another music video aimed not at children, but at homophobes. The message of Jesus is one of tolerance and love. He stops a crowd from stoning a harlot not because he condoned her behavior but because he loved her as a human being.
SpongeBob strikes me as a rather silly cartoon. But children and parents love it.
Apparently so do gay people. I typed "SpongeBob is gay" in a Google search, and it produced 292,000 entries. So what? There are gay people who voted for George W. Bush.
First there was Tinky Winky, the gay Teletubby. Now it's SpongeBob. I've always wondered about Donald Duck's aversion to trousers. But it's a waste of energy.
Everybody knows the really gay cartoon character was Jonny Quest.
Alfred P. Doblin is the editorial page editor of the Herald News. Reach him at doblin@northjersey.com
Post a Comment