There are few things more painful than watching people with no debating skills argue, and this was one of those.
Straightguy: The Bible says homosexuality is a sin.
Gay Guy 1: Yeah, but it’s not.
Straightguy: How can you say it’s not a sin? It’s in the Bible.
Gay Guy 2: Look, the Bible says that… other stuff is… like a sin… and we love each other… so it’s not a sin…
Rinse
Lather
Repeat
It was especially painful watching the MCC Lesbishop try to defend her views. *WOMAN! YOU’VE GOT HIM ON THE ROPES! HE JUST ACKNOWLEDGED THAT HE DOESN’T HONOR ALL PARTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT CODE AND THAT HE THINKS ALL SINS ARE EQUAL! THERE ARE NO LESS THAN 38.323 WIDE OPEN POSITIONS FROM WHICH YOU CAN ATTACK! DEPLOY TROOPS!" but nope. She goes for sanctimonius (using a slightly effective “thou shalt not kill” yet you’re in the military argument that he could have deflected instantly if he knew that the correct translation is closer to thou shalt not murder, but he didn’t and she’s too used to preaching to the converted to defend her views.
Mmmm… painful episode (except for watching the shirtless straight boys dance, which was bizarre and sort of makes you wonder about one or the other of them).
I think that the only time that the straight guy “got it” was when he went to the PFLAG meeting and the straight father told him the same things that everyone else had told him. I found that to be very sad.
The thing at the bar had me wondering. I wonder if they strip off their shirts and dance on boxes in straight bars too…lol.
This episode showed me how far we have to go for true equality. Sadly, the straight guy’s viewpoint and ignorance is shared by alot of people in this country.
That father was very persuasive, wasn’t he? Maybe persuasive isn’t the right word, but what he said seemed to clarify things for the straight guy.
I was disappointed in the lesbian minister too. I don’t think she cared. If she did, she would have been ready for the guy with more than the Thou Shalt Not Kill argument.
I found her lack of debating skills rather surprising. i would think that as a gay Christian clergywoman, she would have had considerable opportunity to hone her arguments, even in San Francisco. I would have asked him if he liked shrimp.
Of course speaking of stereotypes, is it just assumed in the hetero-community (including Spurlock) that all gay guys are into gourmet foods, know seventy types of cheese and which wine goes with each, and love artwork of nekkid men? (Personally I know four types of cheese [Swiss, Cheddar, Whiz and Not-Cheddar], couldn’t even tell you what wine goes with whiskey and if you don’t count streaming porn couldn’t care less about images of nekkid men in my place.)
I still say that I think the show would have worked better had they not gone to the extreme of the Castro (I know they were trying to make him feel like the outsider, but I could have told them it wasn’t gonna take) but moved him in with a middle class and preferably intelligent gay couple in Middle-America (DeKalb County, GA or Pensacola, FL would have been great as both have very large gay communities but are in the midst of conservative Bible Belt states]). While the majority of Castro residents are gay, the majority of gays most certainly don’t live in the Castro or anyplace like.
And I’m still wondering what the half-nekkid dancing was. (His friend was even rubbing his booty on Army boy… anybody wonder if “Damn I was drunk last night! I don’t remember a thing!” is a common saying in their household?)
A buddy of the straight guy spent a weekend with them. The three of them went to a gay bar. Straight guy and his buddy got drunk, took off their shirts and danced on a little stage-thing.
I thought it was insulting to the regulars in the bar, but I wouldn’t be able to explain why. It was sort of a “we’re hot but you can’t have us” thing – a tease.
Maybe I took it wrong and they were just getting into the swing of things, but gay guy didn’t like it either.
I happen to agree. The guys get drunk, take their shirts off, and get upset because they were “touched”. Add bouncers and they could be “gay-for-pay” strippers at any big city club…BIG teases.
If you insist on telling people this The Powers That Be are definitely going to revoke your membership and take back that toaster you got when you signed up.
FWIW, Daddy’s (the bar they were at) is all of twenty feet wide. Maybe thirty.
Aside from a simple lack of space, IIRC, they don’t have a cabaret license, which is required for bars to allow dancing. It’s an oddball San Francisco law - unless it’s been relaxed, the bar could find themselves on the wrong end of a fine from the city.
I thought it was interesting, especially because it didn’t have the conventional “straight guy sees the light” ending.
There were three moments when I saw the little lightbulb go off in Ryan’s (the straight guy’s) head. The first was during the conversation with Ed (the gay roommate) about gays in the military. Ryan was arguing about problems with bunks and showers, etc., when Ed asked him how he’d feel if Ed were in his platoon. You could almost see the cognitive dissonance in Ryan’s head as he said that he’d have no problem bunking or showering with Ed since he knew Ed, and that in fact Ed would make a great soldier. Ryan had a completely confused look on his face as he realized for the first time that his religious position didn’t necessarily square with how he really felt.
The second was with the previously mentioned PFLAG Dad, and the third was when Ryan went home to his family, and realized that they sounded like a bunch of bigots. Obviously Ryan hasn’t given up his core religious beliefs, but I doubt he’ll ever be the one throwing the beer bottles. I also think that he’ll be able to deal if a friend/relative/child ever comes out to him.
One down, 200 million to go. At 30 days per straight guy, this could take a while.
Is it becoming a running gag (or perhaps I should say motif) that religious authorities from the “other side” are largely clueless? We had the first imam from the Muslim ep who went for weeks without providing the guy with an English translation of the prayers, and then we have Reverend Penny this week coming off as very ineffectual.
Based on the language, according to the rating box. There were some unbleeped "shit"s and "bullshit"s. Of course gay-themed episodes of a lot of things get the TV-MA treatment. At least this didn’t get the parental advisory like Ellen used to (and like the repeat of the Simpsons gay marriage ep did).
Didn’t Ryan decide where he was going to work? He’s the one who walked into the gourmet shop and asked for the job; I assume he could’ve gone elsewhere if he’d wanted to. And they did bust stereotypes, with the gay softball team and the MCC.
And I disagree that the show would’ve worked as well outside the Castro. Other cities may have large gay populations and even gay neighborhoods, but I don’t know of anywhere else one could go for the sort of total immersion that the show strives for.
I think Ed was ticked about it mostly because he felt like Ryan wanted to go into that particular bar because he’d had a confrontation there before. I think Ed said something about how he thought Ryan was looking for trouble by going back in. The scene outside after the dancing was a bit over the top I thought; Ed threw a mini-hissy but it’s not like there wasn’t a gay guy up there with them dancing tits to the wind too.
So how many years do we think Ed and Ryan are going to exchange Christmas cards? I say one; this year and then it’s all over.