ABC’s late night host Jimmy Kimmel thought it would be funny to have parents play a “prank” on their own children by getting “their kids a terrible, out of style, or embarrassing back to school outfit.” While the parents’ assigned homework didn’t include forcing their children to actually wear the outfits to school, the video montage his ABC producers put together — culled from dozens of videos parents posted to YouTube — offered several outfits that allowed parents and the millions of viewers that comprise Kimmel’s national and international audience to think it is OK to use “gay” as an insult, and to continue the false concept that gender non-conforming children are somehow acceptable targets of humor. In short, Kimmel is empowering anti-LGBT hate.
“At least one of the parents thought putting their kid in an ‘I’m So Gay’ t-shirt would be hilariously humiliating,” Towleroad’s Andy Towle, the first to post the video, writes. “Kimmel’s producers agreed enough to include it in the gag reel. Is the point here that it would be ‘horrible’ for the kid because so many are bullied for being gay, or are gays the actual punchline? The point here would seem to be the latter.”
One man’s voice in the background, presumably a boy’s father, asks “if Jimmy Kimmel will be paying for a psychiatrist” because his son is wearing a dress.
Congratulations, ABC and Jimmy Kimmel, for starting the school year off with an invitation to bully kids.
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{ 7 comments }
That is sick. I don't know what Jimmy Kimmel was thinking.
He doesn't. One of the many reasons I do not watch him. Craig Ferguson is the only one worth staying up for, IMO.
Most folks still don't get it. I believe they compare it to black peoples civil rights, in a twisted way, thinking any "gay" thing is not as bad as what the blacks had to go through. Problem is, most Americans are too stupid to know it wasn't just blacks that were treated horrifically, it has always been minorities in the USA. Mormons had to flee the country, their, leader killed by a mob, Quakers hung by Puritans, Mid-wives burnt at the stake for being "Witches", etc… I will grant you the fact that black people were slaves and were shipped here and still don't get equal rights in my opinion, so don't get me wrong about how huge their plight has been.
But you can see how someone would compare wearing a "I'm Gay" t-shirt, then getting his head beat in, to most, (all non-minorities) is almost acceptable behavior because no one is being treated the way the slaves were. Problem is, this "no big deal compared too" mind-set is what makes so many people ignorant and heart-less whenever the story about Matthew Sheppard comes to light, and the Hate Crimes laws, both in our general citizenry and our elected officials. They can some how accept that blacks were dragged her to be slaves, but if a gay or woman get beaten or killed, its not that bad, plus they asked for it.
It's called satire…….look it up.
Well, at best it's an attempt to satirize bigotry. I think he probably meant well. However, he it seems to make being gay something to laugh at, rather than making bigotry something to laugh at.
So if he was a gay comedian it would have been ok to go ahead with the piece?………You all need to take a deep breath and laugh at yourselves……..If we are unable to laugh at ourselves as a community then whats the point?
Jimmy is probably one of our Top 10 allies so get over yourselves.
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