Wayne Besen – Memphis Flyer

The super bomb of the Super Bowl was the blatantly homophobic Snickers ad that aired in the first quarter of the game. It began with two homely male mechanics fixing a car while under the hood. One plucks a Snickers bar out of his pocket and starts to devour it while his friend longingly watches. Unable to constrain himself, the friend chomps on the other side of the bar until the two meet in the middle of the candy bar and inadvertently kiss.

One of the revolted mechanics acknowledges that a same-sex smooch has occurred, which touches off a histrionic horrorfest.

“Quick, do something manly,” exclaims one of the buffoons. Without hesitation, they undo their shirts and rip a large patch of hair off their chests, while screaming in proper repentance for their sins.

This retrograde 30-second clip shows that Mars, Inc. executives are living on another planet and that there are more nuts in their boardroom than in the candy bar. The vile ad was a low blow that went for a cheap laugh at the expense of a minority. The candy company should immediately apologize or at least pull the offending ad before it infects more minds with mindless stereotypes.

How in God’s name did the suits at Mars find this crass garbage suitable for public consumption? In front of millions of people, including vulnerable gay youth, the company sent the divisive message that gay people are unmanly. It takes a lot to offend me, and I realize laughter helps break down barriers and can lead to real dialogue. The problem here is that people were laughing at us, not with us. In terms of raw obscenity, this was a Janet Jackson moment for the GLBT community that should provoke shock and outrage. It is not 1978. This is 2007, and such potty-humored portrayals are out of bounds. (To see a comprehensive history of gay ads, visit CommercialCloset.com.)

Last week, Senator Joseph Biden subverted his long-shot presidential bid when he clumsily referred to Senator Barack Obama as “clean” and “articulate.” On Sunday, an article in The New York Times discussed how African Americans are rightfully annoyed when white people act surprised when they are eloquent speakers and refer to them as “articulate.”

“How many flukes simply constitute reality?” asked Reginald Hudlin, president of entertainment for Black Entertainment Television.

As a gay man who was formerly a second-team all-city basketball player, I am equally annoyed at blanket portrayals of homosexuality as unmanly. We have seen many brave gay service-members die in America’s wars. We have witnessed examples of tough professional athletes, such as baseball player Billy Bean and NFL lineman Esera Tuaolo. We have honored heroes like Mark Bingham, who helped keep terrorists from slamming hijacked Flight 93 into the nation’s capital. To paraphrase Hudlin, how many flukes will it take before GLBT people are recognized for their bravery and, yes, manliness.

Even braver, of course, are effeminate gay men, masculine lesbians, and transgender Americans who have the courage to step each day into a hostile world created by such ads. The problem is, the typecasts portrayed by our culture have made life very difficult for those who do not fit into societal “norms.”

Finally, aren’t straight men tired of having their masculinity tied to moronic behavior? Do they really want to be seen as brawny, brainless, backwoods bumpkins? The message sent by companies who make degrading ads, like Mars, Inc., is that to be tough, one has to be a troglodyte. In one broad brushstroke, Mars managed to insult gay people for not being macho, while painting masculinity as a quite undesirable trait.

Mars should go back to producing cavities in teeth rather than ads that produce brain rot that dehumanizes GLBT people and portrays straight men as a step below chimpanzees. If Snickers really satisfies, as their ads claim, they will take this disgraceful dung off the air and discard it like a used candy wrapper.

Wayne Besen writes the syndicated column “Anything But Straight.”

The biggest misnomer in the Mark Foley fiasco is that his transgressions were caused by the “closet.” We hear that his
career ended in tragedy because living in secrecy warps the mind and leads to sleaze on the sly. This, of course, is often true, as in the case of former New Jersey governor James McGreevey, but Foley
doesn’t fit the script.

For one, it seems every gay man in West Palm Beach has at least one Mark Foley story. For someone supposedly on the down low, Foley attended gay parties and was brazen enough on one occasion to introduce his longtime partner to a news reporter.

In Congress, if Foley wasn’t officially out to the Republican leadership, it was certainly Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. The congressman had been “outed” repeatedly in the gay press, and rumors swirled on the Internet. It just isn’t credible to believe that in the gossip mill known as Capitol Hill, these whispers did not circulate to the top echelons of power.

The former congressman is not a victim of the closet but of naked ambition and raw opportunism. Foley began his career as a Democrat but figured his prospects were better as a Republican and switched parties. From the beginning, it was clear he stood for nothing but the attainment of personal power. This is why he had little trouble joining a party that was ascending, in part, by embracing an anti-gay “family values” platform. (Of course, given the way House speaker Dennis Hastert has handled allegations of Foley’s impropriety, it appears that the GOP’s party leadership is as insincere on “family values” as Foley was.)

In the same cavalier way he snookered the right, Foley consistently trampled the gay community. He saw no contradiction in parading around with his long-term boyfriend in Florida while returning to Washington to vote in favor of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits states from recognizing same-sex marriages performed in other states. Foley was willing to give second-class status to relationships, including his own, to satisfy his lust for power.

In a final act of monumental hypocrisy, Foley was the co-chairman of the House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children. He strutted around touting this commendable legislation while proclaiming, “We track library books better than we do sex offenders. … If I were one of these sickos, I’d be nervous with America’s Most Wanted on my trail.”

Only nine weeks later we come to find that Foley has written more pages than Stephen King. The original online banter was creepy but not sexually explicit. Newly released Instant Messages reveal a deeply disturbed man who was clearly abusing his authority to try to gain sexual favors from pages.

In an effort to garner sympathy, Foley claims that his moral failures took place because he is an alcoholic. But even if he were a heavy drinker, he was still well aware that pages are high school juniors, making even this weak alibi irrelevant.

Make no mistake, Foley’s disgraceful fall has damaged the gay community because it perpetuated the devastating stereotype that homosexuals are child molesters. To compound the problem, Foley’s lawyer claimed that as a boy Foley was molested while finally acknowledging that the disgraced former lawmaker is a gay man. By conflating the two subjects, Foley provided fodder for every right-wing organization in the nation that claims that gays are the sinful byproduct of abuse or neglect.

The jackals on the right wasted no time exploiting the situation. “While pro-homosexual activists like to claim that pedophilia is a completely distinct orientation from homosexuality, evidence shows a disproportionate overlap between the two,” said Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council.

Perkins’ comments are disgustingly mean-spirited and untrue. A 2000 study by Dr. Michael R. Stevenson concluded: “A gay man is no more likely than a straight man to perpetrate sexual activity on children.” A 1994 study by Dr. Carole Jenny found that less than 1 percent of the children in her study were abused by a gay man or lesbian. In 1978, Drs. Nicholas Groth and Jean Birnbaum found that none of the 175 molesters in their study had an exclusively homosexual adult orientation.

Unfortunately, perception is reality, and when Foley-gate is out of the headlines, the damage he wrought will make it difficult for the gay and lesbian community to turn the page.

Wayne Besen writes the syndicated column”Anything But Straight.”