While Star Trek: Discovery has drawn praise for featuring the franchise’s first-ever same-sex couple, unsurprisingly not everyone is happy.
Right-wing activist Peter LaBarbera recently told radio station VCY America that producers should balance the inclusion of Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz’s characters with an “ex-gay” character.
LaBarbera is president of Americans for Truth, an organisation dedicated to “exposing the homosexual activist agenda.”
“The homosexual activists are never satisfied, they always want more, more, more,” LaBarbera said, according to Right Wing Watch. “We have yet to see an ex-gay, a former homosexual prominently portrayed in Hollywood.”
The idea that someone can change their sexuality has been widely discredited, with former advocates of “ex-gay” therapy — also known as conversion therapy — distancing themselves from the movement.
LaBarbera offers a simple solution for anyone offended by the inclusion of a gay couple in Discovery.
“This is more activism, and I guess all we can do is not watch Star Trek,” he said, adding that “this sort of propaganda” is “why Trump won in the first place.”
However, LaBarbera believes that the problem extends beyond just showing gays on television.
He claims there is a “battle between good and evil” in America and urged anyone listening to “call your congressman” and complain about the Equality Act, which would create federal legislation protecting LGBTQ people from discrimination.
“Call your representative,” he said. “Say you oppose this homosexual legislation which would actually make it easier for homosexual activists and liberal attorneys to persecute people of faith for opposing this juggernaut which calls itself ‘gay.'”
We spoke to Anthony Rapp earlier this year about his role as Science Officer Paul Stamets in Discovery. Rapp said that he was “honored” to be playing one of the franchise’s first openly gay characters.
“I’m also honored to be a part of a piece of work that’s part of the cultural pantheon,” he said. “It’s kind of crazy that I get to be a part of something that means so much to so many people. It meant a lot to me, too. I’m thrilled and I’m honored to be the vehicle for this aspect of the story that’s being told.”
It's a little late, but still seasonal. Happy First Contact Day! This Star Trek holiday, April 5, commemorates the fictional arrival of extraterrestrial aliens in 2063. I may have enjoyed a really lovely Easter brunch this year, amid Holi and Ramadan/Eid al-Fitr, and Passover barely more than a week away, but I'm no Christian, nor any of the other recognized options.
My fantastical faith, however, has many of the traditional trappings. You want a savior to be tested in the desert? As third officer on a Pan Am flight from Karachi to Istanbul in 1947, Gene Roddenberry, who later created Star Trek, was the ranking officer to survive that ill-fated flight's crash landing in the Syrian desert.
Anti-LGBTQ trolls have blamed openly gay Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg for a bridge collapse in Baltimore believed to have killed six people after it was hit by a 95,000-ton cargo ship.
The Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed after the Dali, a 985-foot container ship flying the Singapore flag, crashed into the bridge's reinforced concrete support pier.
The container ship, which was traveling at about 9 miles per hour, lost both engine power and electrical power to its control and communications systems minutes before it crashed into the bridge stanchion.
Charade is an incredible movie. Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant in early 1960s Paris. A murder, a missing fortune, a cast of luminaries beyond Hepburn and Grant, and a soundtrack by Henry Mancini. It's so good.
And that dialogue! Among the best lines comes from Hepburn's Regina Lampert, complaining to friend Sylvie about the state of her lackluster marriage. Sylvie advises that this season's fashions could help her meet -- ahem -- new "friends" to take her mind off her hollow marriage. Regina, an American transplant to France, responds, "I admit I came to Paris to escape 'American provincial,' but that doesn't mean I'm ready for 'French traditional.'" So good!
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