May 6, 1997

Ellen TV Sitcom Promoting Gays On A Slippery Slope

“Frankly, my dear, I don’t give a damn!”

Clark Gable’s mild reprimand 58 years ago in the famous movie “Gone With The Wind” shocked, shocked Americans. It was the first step on the slippery slope of moral change in America.

The process gathered speed along the way with the movie “Ecstasy” in which Heddy Lamarr in her birthday suit ran through the woods for 30 seconds; and when Brigitte Bardot exposed nearly all her natural charms in the wide screen flick “God Created Woman.”

For a few, wonderful years TV gave us Lucille Ball, Milton Berle, Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carol Burnett and many other situation-comedy (sitcom) stars. The whole family gathered around the tube and laughed together.

Then along came cable television, and the toilet overflowed. With no air wave restraints, barn-yard morals took over. To compete for audience, broadcast TV pushed the envelope.

“All In The Family” broke the good-taste barrier with stereotype wise cracks about Jews, Catholics, and blacks. Announced attempt of the series was to put down middle-class supposedly-conservative mores. It was funny but demonstrated that anything goes.

Consequently, no one should be surprised that the tedious sitcom “Ellen” opened the door last week on an historical taboo with lesbians playing lesbians playing lesbianism. It was wittily presented, but pathetic.

People afflicted by hormonal disorder are not funny.

It is said that 1,500 “coming out” parties were held in gay bars throughout the nation to watch Ellen DeGeneres portray herself. ABC- TV hyped the show shamelessly for weeks ahead. The press raved about the upcoming “event.” Even President Clinton lent his prestige to the affair by posing with DeGeneres embracing her real-life lover at the White House correspondent’s dinner last week.

Pollsters reported that the show pulled 42 million viewers -- 35 percent of television sets turned on. This is twice Ellen’s usual share but half that of the last showing of MASH.

The usual canned laughter we have come to accept with sitcoms was augmented with whoops and cheers from an audience of gays hand-picked to view the pivotal scene where Ellen admits she has the hots for Laura.

Same-sex relationships have existed throughout history. However, the attraction does not preserve the species -- the driving force of nature. It is akin to alcohol, drugs, smoking, gambling and other human jollies.

We are becoming a genitalia-oriented society -- if we aren’t already. Rock Star Michael Jackson’s impulsive clutch at his crotch is the trademark of popular culture. Madonna is the highly-paid goddess of fornication.

There can be toleration without approval, but the entertainment industry is perversely focused on sex. Homosexuals there throw their lifestyles in our face -- so to speak. They sprinkle lots of bedroom scenes in prime-time shows. The combination filters down to schools, work places, and homes.

Last week we read about the Hunter School for gifted middle-grade pupils distributing 35 to 40 condoms per week -- in assorted flavors. Think about that for a minute.

A half-dozen fourth grade children at a District of Columbia school -- sent to an unsupervised detention room -- were discovered to have disrobed and engaging in sex. The school principal was reprimanded for not telling the children’s parents.

Rev. Bob and Cindy McDuffie of Charlotte County are still crusading against sex and gutter language in books that a few local teachers introduce in their classrooms.

Three years ago it was “Linda Has Two Mommies” emphasizing that a lesbian family was an acceptable life style. Two years ago it was “Last of the Wine” which romanticized homosexuality in ancient Greece. This year, according to a letter sent by Rev. McDuffie to School Superintendent Max Schmidt and all board members, “Slaughterhouse Five” was required reading for the Advanced Placement Program.

The book written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1963 is an anti-war thesis. It centers around an American soldier who comes mentally unhinged by the saturation bombing of Dresden, Germany. Never mind the Nazi’s saturation bombing of London and Coventry. The soldier gets tangled up in time dimensions and describes his adventures with frequent passages of old Anglo-Saxon four-letter words for sex and defecation. Liberals still love the anti-war theme, but literary critics panned the book as third-rate science-fiction.

“Slaughter House Five” has received re-birth on a Princeton University Advanced Placement reading list of approximately 50 titles. Aside from its worn-out anti-Vietnam propaganda, “Slaughter House” legitimizes crude language for students who would be better served by an advanced vocabulary.

It is hard to believe that there is nothing more timely and constructive on the Princeton list.

A government survey by the National Center for Health Statistics, slated for release in full later this month, discloses that teenage sex has dropped five percent since the last study in 1990. An encouraging sign.

Nevertheless, 50 percent of females and 55 percent of males aged 15 to 19 had had sexual intercourse. Forty percent of girls became pregnant before they are 20. Half of teen pregnancies end in birth, one-third in abortion and the rest in miscarriage, according to the private Center For Equal Opportunity.

Linda Chavez, president of the center, advocates a national media campaign to prevent teen pregnancy. She formerly was staff director of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights under President Reagan. “When Hollywood decides they want to promote a certain value, they are effective at doing it,” she declares.

Donna Shalala, secretary of Health and Human Services, hailed the decrease in teenage promiscuity but urged greater efforts to “change the cultural messages that have been accepted too long” about sex.

Enough, already!

President Clinton had the right approach when he okayed homosexuals for the military -- don’t ask, don’t tell.

Everyone has the right to do his, her or its thing. Just spare us the raunchy details.

PARTING SHOTS

It’s the truth: “Pure drivel tends to drive ordinary drivel off the TV screen.” -- Marvin Kitman.

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Alabama Judge Roy Moore is being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for displaying the Ten Commandments in his courtroom.

The ACLU wants him to put up a golden calf.

* * *

If you look like your driving license photo, you’re too sick to drive.

By Lindsey Williams, columnist for Sun Coast Media Group newspapers