State senator condemns “South Carolina is so gay” advertising campaign
There’s talk that Heath Ledger may get a posthumous Oscar for his role as the Joker in the upcoming Batman movie. Nothing to do with the fact that he died during the making of the movie, of course…
Well, okay, of course it’s because he died. Ever heard of someone playing a comic book villain being ‘nominated’ for an Oscar before the movie had even made it to the theaters?
Funny how that goes. They say death is the great leveller but at times it’s anything but.
Also makes you wonder if this widely spread admiration would have been the same if Ledger had died during the filming of Brokeback Mountain. Would sentimental piety & worship have been able to overcome homophobia?
Probably not in South Carolina, where a senator Thomas has taken a stand against the gay travel industry:
An advertising campaign launched on the London Underground during gay pride week earlier this month has caused a political storm in South Carolina. Posters, displayed at Leicester Square and Covent Garden tube stations in the two-week period surrounding the festival, were designed to promote a gay tour operator and to increase tourism to various US destinations noted for being gay-friendly.
News of the campaign and a poster with the tagline “South Carolina is so gay” reached the state late last week where it was condemned by Senator David Thomas. The state employee who approved the campaign has since resigned and Senator Thomas is calling for an audit of the tourism department’s advertising budget, which this year runs in excess of $10m.
“South Carolinians will be irate when they learn their hard earned tax dollars are being spent to advertise our state as ’so gay,’” said Senator Thomas.
Senator Thomas might have welcomed busload of heavily painted psychopathic killers, to stay with the Ledger theme, but a posse of gay cowboys better not show up in his state.
Each to his own (closet), I suppose.
Nevertheless, you can still say that the advertising campaign itself was a huge success. It was meant to show the rest of the world how tolerant at least parts of the USA were to gay holiday makers. The fact that it now also showed the world which parts of the continent were still dominated by homophobic senators can only be seen as a bonus.
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