On Thanksgiving morning, I settled in with my coffee beside me and a dog on my lap to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. Granted, it’s not something I normally do, but it’s proven to be a year of new traditions for me, so I figured, “why not.”
After fighting dreary reports and sleepy performances on CBS, I switched over to NBC and saw that the network incorporated Broadway (although obviously lip-synched) performances into the parade festivities. I caught the second half of the Motown show, stepped outside with my pups for a bit, and came back in time to hear Matt Lauer introduce a performance by the cast of the Cyndi Lauper/Harvey Fierstein musical Kinky Boots.
I haven’t seen the show, but being in gay media, I was familiar with the plot about a traditional shoe maker who follows the suggestion of a drag performer and makes fetish footwear to save his business and the jobs of his employees.
So before the music even started, I looked at my clock, subtracted an hour for “central time” and thought, “Hold on, Middle-America. You’re getting a wake-up call you weren’t expecting.”
And I was right.
Backlash from socially conservative states (that’s a shout-out to my home state of Missouri, by the way) inundated Twitter and Facebook. Remarks on social media referenced the NBC network’s and Macy’s plot to ruin the holiday, upsetting the traditional family structure and forcing parents to have conversations with their children about sexuality.
The new American way, unfortunately, is to overreact when something makes us uncomfortable. We go from surprised to offended in a matter of seconds – regardless of political affiliation, sexual orientation or gender identity – and do little, if any research, to try to understand the story behind something that appears unfamiliar.
While I don’t see the crew of red, high-heel-boots wearing dancers “ruining” Thanksgiving, I see how it could force some conversations among families that aren’t traditionally checking out Broadway shows or frequenting drag bars.
“Mommy, why is that man in a dress?” is not, no doubt, a question a 30- or 40-something woman in a housecoat is prepared to field from her young son at 8 a.m. on a holiday.
But reactions to the musical number in family rooms and kitchens across the United States didn’t have to be negative experiences. In fact, conversations about diversity, acceptance and teamwork are only miserable if they’re conducted by a homophobe or a bigot.
If someone found themselves in a situation on Thanksgiving morning where they were “caught off guard” or “forced” to talk to their children about tolerance and diversity, they only have themselves, and maybe their church leaders, to blame.
Who is really bastardizing the “tradition” of Thanksgiving?
Whether it’s embellished or not, the story of the holiday talks about two different groups coming together and sharing a meal, despite their differences. Pilgrims and Native Americans knew little of each other, yet tried to understand and learn from their very different cultures.
History has a way of getting a “Disney touch” when it relates to holidays, but hopefully you see my point.
If anyone is guilty of breaking a Thanksgiving tradition here, it’s those who refuse to accept that other cultures within our country can be found in every state. (Or maybe those swamping stores on a day of thanks get more stuff.)
But it is impossible to ignore a specific group out of existence. It’s been tried throughout history and is a proven failure.
The LGBT community surged ahead in 2013, and we are on track to continue to do so in 2014. Marriage equality, for instance, finds its way into state laws almost every month, and communities adopt ordinances every week that protect us from discrimination.
On the flip side, socially conservative communities who continue to fight equality are out there as well. Ignoring them doesn’t make them go away, and it’s things like the “Kinky Boots incident of Thanksgiving 2013” that remind us that we still have a fight on our hands.
Technology makes them louder than they actually are. And that’s not a bad thing either.
These sometimes not-so-gentle reminders of our haters are fantastic ammunition to encourage our fight.
And I’m excited to have a front-row seat.
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