"In the current anti-gay bullying climate, is it ever OK to make gay jokes? Tricia Romano talks to Margaret Cho and “It Gets Better” originator Dan Savage to try to figure it out....
>>>"In the current anti-gay bullying climate, is it ever OK to make gay jokes? Tricia Romano talks to Margaret Cho and “It Gets Better” originator Dan Savage to try to figure it out.
America is having a gay moment.
From, "It Gets Better," Dan Savage's video campaign directed at gay teens in the wake of Tyler Clementi's suicide, to the ‘round-the-clock news about a California federal judge's decision to halt the enforcement of Don't Ask, Don't Tell in the military, to Justin Bieber's alleged gay taunting when playing laser tag, America is in the midst of a gay awakening of sorts.
(And that's gay, as in homosexual. Not gay, as in lame. Or gay, as in dorky.)
The flurry of gay-related news has extended to a trailer for a movie that's apparently bad enough that it's being released in the middle of January, when no one cares. The Dilemma, the Ron Howard flick starring everyone's favorite puffy-faced sex symbol Vince Vaughn, has spawned a debate about the word “gay,” and its usage in a joke.
The joke itself, since eliminated from the trailer, is pretty hapless: “Electric cars are gay. I mean not 'homosexual' gay, but 'my parents are chaperoning the dance' gay,” says Vaughn’s character. But spurred by Anderson Cooper’s appearance on Ellen a few weeks ago in which the news anchor criticized the joke, there has been a furious debate that still thrives—Sir Elton John weighed in this week to Us Weekly, siding with Cooper."
Excerpt from a Daily Beast article written by Tricia Romana (www.Twitter.com/tromano)
http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2010-10-23/gay-jokes-acceptable-or-not-dan-savage-and-margaret-cho-discuss/
