BOYCOTT INTOLERANCE, NOT DISNEY’S WORLD

MICK LaSALLE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

MONDAY, JUNE 18, 1997

It’s the American way, when angry, to go for the pocketbook. So the call the other day by the Southern Baptist Convention to boycott Disney for its “gay-friendly” policies is part of an ongoing tradition. The Catholic bishops, for example, did something similar in 1934, ushering in the old production code that put a stranglehold on film content for decades.

This time it won’t work, for several reasons. Disney is too big and too diverse. The resolution is out of step with mainstream American opinion. And, perhaps the most important reason, Southern Baptists tend to be very independent people, and many are just too hip, too loving, too tolerant or too Christian to get excited about Ellen DeGeneres’ coming out on her Disney-owned sitcom.

Yet the convention’s concentration on homosexuality is curious. Supporters of the resolution say that they want to protest Disney for “promoting gay lifestyles.” Disney reportedly extends benefits to gay domestic partners and holds unofficial Gay Days at its Disney World and Disneyland theme parks. But these things don’t exactly promote gayness. In fact, Disney couldn’t effectively _promote_ gayness even if that were its intention.

Think of something else Southern Baptists are in moral opposition to — something we can all agree on as evil, such as murder. Murder really could be glamorized on a wide-scale basis and, if effective, such promotions could be dangerous.

But even those Southern Baptists who see homosexuality as wicked practice have to recognize that its appeal is, let’s face it, limited. Bombard the culture with “gay friendly” images, and the vast majority of people would remain heterosexual. Just as the gay population, despite a heterosexual bombardment in every facet of daily life, remains gay.

It seems, then, that the convention’s fear really isn’t that gay lifestyles will be promoted. The fear is that gay lifestyles will be _tolerated_. And that’s not only not nice, it’s un-American. And it’s not justifiable from a Christian perspective.

Perhaps the fear runs even deeper. If homosexuals are everywhere, no longer the monsters in the closet but the couple down the block, it may force the most rigid fundamentalists themselves to wonder if sexuality might, in fact, be God-given. That would make Creation a bit more complicated. That would make reality, and morality, a bit less black and white.

The telling detail is that Disney is the focus of the boycott. Not Universal. Not Time-Warner. Disney is a company whose empire was built on entertainment that assured people there were sure rules of existence. Life was painted in primary colors. Evil either didn’t exist, or the moral battles were clear-cut.

Disney’s entertainment provided a thin layer of easily understood reality over the abyss of metaphysical terror that we cozily call life.

So when Disney starts having Gay Days and letting Ellen be gay on national TV, it must seem like the crumbling of a foundation, like a betrayal, like an abandonment of the faith. You don’t burn atheists or agnostics. You burn heretics. Only, guess what? This heretic turns out to be too big to burn.

If the Southern Baptist Convention really wants to promote positive values, it might consider just diving in and getting into the entertainment business. It’s the only way to do things these days. Everything is show business, and you just have to get good at it.. There are positive things such a group could do — promote children’s’ programming, promote educational television, even finance a film, like “The Spitfire Grill.”

Entertainment truly is in a sorry state right now. If sincere people coming from a place of joy and a loving heart wanted to say something, it would be welcome — at least as a change of pace.

Shalom! Rowland Croucher

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