Was the Tampa Tribune’s entire editorial board locked in a sweat lodge trying to identify their spirit animals when Douglas MacKinnon’s column on Disney’s “pro-gay agenda” crossed their desks?
That is the only explanation for the paranoid, bizarre, flimsy-as-tissue paper opinion piece ever making it to print.
Titled “Disney’s Pro-Gay Agenda is Disturbing,” the piece was published Aug. 11. First, MacKinnon waxes poetic about the magic of Disney. He mentions the joy Disney films brought him as he grew up in poverty, and a few minutes of Googling lets me know this is MacKinnon’s schtick—poor beginnings, conservative values, scrappy bootstrap pulling-up.
Got it.
Then, he launches into what I call—using some poetic license here—“arguments.” That’s because his sauce, as they say, is weak. Let’s break them down together.
Disney has made no secret that it pushes a pro-gay agenda. That is most certainly its right. But where does the company draw the line?
THEY MUST NOT STOP TILL EVERYONE IS GAY! Just kidding. I can tell you precisely where Disney draws the line. Far from openly pro-gay, Disney has walked a rainbow-striped tightrope. They are very pro-LGBT-equality behind the scenes, on the corporate side. The company has offered domestic partner benefits since the 1990s. PRIDE, their Diversity Resource Group, is active and vibrant. Employees march in Orlando’s Pride Parade every year. However, Disney stops just short of taking their support outside of internal affairs.
They’ve never publicly acknowledged Gay Days, arguably one of the largest LGBT gatherings in the world, and an event from which Disney profits handsomely. Just like most other major corporations, they are progressing, but they are not just yet bastions of LGBT equality.
Next, MacKinnon talks to an unnamed “former Disney executive.” That sounds like a totally real and reliable source.
The former executive said one of the more subtle techniques is to incorporate the colors of the gay-pride flag in as many shots as possible. The colors are woven in as a wink and nod to the gay community and show up on shirts, hats, posters, stacked cups and rings. The practice has been picked up by other children’s networks and national advertisers.
Is it not possible that children’s programming is colorful because kids have always been drawn to bright, primary colors?
Disney also pushes the gay agenda by introducing openly gay characters and couples on its children’s programing. Again, that is their right, but should they be in the business of entertaining children or indoctrinating them?
Portraying gay characters is accurately representing the world we live in. Many of those children who watch Disney programming have gay parents or family members. That’s not indoctrination. That’s life.
Beyond its pro-gay agenda, which now includes halting funding to the Boy Scouts of America, Disney also leans left in its politics. Once again, that is their right.
Whoa, whoa, whoa there, fella. Disney’s decision to stop funding the Boy Scouts wasn’t pro-gay. It was anti-discrimination. For those who don’t know, last year the Boy Scouts decided gay Scouts are okay, but gay Scout leaders are not.
But going back to their children’s programming, Michelle Obama has become a fixture on seemingly every Disney Channel show or Disney commercial, with President Barack Obama also incorporated in as many ways as possible.
I have not taken anything out of context, here. The above sentence directly follow’s MacKinnon’s one about a pro-gay agenda. Perhaps the Obamas aren’t featured because they’re… somehow… gay. Perhaps they’re featured because they are the First Lady and the President of the United freaking States.
Next, MacKinnon makes the argument that Disney is wealthier than God, which is possibly the first true thing he’s said in the entire column, and therefore, management is too rich to care that “half the nation” doesn’t like Disney’s children’s programming “shilling” for the gays and the liberals.
They have made the corporate decision to push their adult ideology upon children ages 2 to 12, and who’s to stop them?
This would maybe be concerning if MacKinnon had managed to present a shred of evidence that any sort of agenda or indoctrination exists. That’s a key step in this whole convincing-people-to-believe-you thing.
Next, he trots out the old “liberals run the media” cliché, and says that allows companies like Disney to “re-educate our youth.”
The Disney Co. does much good and brightens the lives of millions around the world, especially children. Because of that, I wish they had stayed in the business of entertaining those children and left the indoctrination to someone else.
They have. They have left the indoctrination to literally everyone else on the planet Earth because Disney’s gay agenda doesn’t exist.
Seriously, rainbow clothing on children’s programming, a choice not to directly fund discrimination and the television presence of the First Lady are all this clown has presented in support of what he claims is Disney’s pro-gay agenda.
I don’t know for whom I’m most embarrassed—MacKinnon or the Tampa Tribune editorial team that allowed this column constructed of chiffon to be published.
Oh wait, I know. I’m embarrassed for all of them.
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