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The low points of the Oscars for me occurred in the first 30 seconds of the broadcast and the last 30 seconds. I knew in those first 30 seconds exactly what would occur in the last 30 seconds. Homosexuality is still a concept that's OK to joke about in this country. The Academy knows that even among those people who loved "Brokeback Mountain" as a film, there is huge discomfort with issues involving gay sex and relationships. So it's not only OK to pick that issue as the opening joke of the evening, it's an opening joke that's sure to score big points with all viewers, from those sympathetic to the film to the raging homophobes. Think about it -- pick any other minority in this country -- racial, religious, or otherwise. Would it be OK to spend the opening 30 seconds of a program viewed by hundreds of millions of people around the world making fun of that group? Making fun of exactly the thing that defines them as a minority? Could you open the Oscar broadcast having a group of people pointing and laughing at someone's black skin or someone's Asian features? Could you just laugh at people having trouble operating their wheelchairs? Of course not. Why, then, is it sill OK to make fun of just being gay? Didn't Matthew Shepherd change that? And if it's OK for a group like the Academy (a group that went on for 2 and a half hours congratulating itself for being broad-minded), why isn't it OK for highschool kids, employers, the military, and everyone else to make fun of (and marginalize) gay people for being gay? It's no wonder that, as has been reported, older Acadamy voters couldn't even bring themselves to watch the movie, much less vote for it as "Best Picture".
So much more could be said in criticism of that opening scene. Why would a prominent Jewish comic and a prominent African-American comic participate in it? Shouldn't they, more than most, understand the subtly corrosive effects of that kind of humor? Some would say, well, each one of them makes fun of his own Jewish-ness or his own black-ness, so why isn't gay humor OK? The simple answer is that when gay people are truly accepted in the mainstream in this country, and a prominent OUT gay actor is up there making the jokes and lifting the boat for all gay people, than maybe I'll react differently. As it was, I cringed as soon as I saw the pup-tent show up on the screen. I knew it was a moment I was supposed to let slide and laugh at, along with the straight people I was watching the show with. But what I felt in my heart was -- this ain't gonna' be the year Oscar does right by gay people.
