Anti-LGBT Folks Target Fox's Family Guy

by Michael Jones · 2009-03-14 08:10:00 UTC
Topics:

Family Guy

Family Guy has been on the air for seven years, and while it's stoked some controversy on the right before, it's perhaps never received such widespread backlash as it has this week, for a March 8 episode that (VERY) satirically looked at the issue of homosexuality and Christianity.

The show is usually intended to be pretty over the top (one of the reasons I continue to watch it -- that, and the fact that now that I'm 30, I need Family Guy to help me keep up to date on pop culture!).  And the episode in question, "Family Gay," certainly may have offended some LGBT rights activists with its stereotypes of gay men.  But it's actually the News Busters, Media Research Center, and the Parents Television Council crowd up in arms.  Why?

In the episode (note: the next few words are going to sound like I had an acid-trippy dream, rather than the plot of a television show...), the dad (Peter) becomes a medical research test subject to make extra money, and while undergoing a series of tests, gets injected with the "gay gene" and becomes gay.  And that plot line was enough to draw the ire of the right, according to Edge Boston, for suggesting that homosexuality is "an innate personal characteristic based on genetic makeup, not a 'lifestyle choice,' as conservative religious groups claim."

The episode also takes a swipe at ex-gay ministry camps, where the following line gets heard after the dad (Peter) enters one to change his sexuality: "You’re all here because you’ve made a choice to renounce your evil sinful ways and redeem yourselves in the eyes of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who hates many people, but none more than homosexuals."  (The sarcasm is stinging!)  And the other line that roiled the radical right?  A conversation between Meg (daughter), Lois (mom), Stewie (talking baby), and Brian (talking dog):

MEG (daughter): So, dad’s gonna be gay forever?

LOIS (mother): Possibly Meg, so we’re all just going to have to get used to this and learn to accept your father for who he is now.

STEWIE: Oh great plan Lois. Hey here’s a nutty idea: Ever read the Bible? Leviticus 18:22.

BRIAN (dog): Stewie you’re judgmentally quoting Bible verses and you don’t even know how to read.

STEWIE: Welcome to America, Brian.

So I get that "Family Guy" isn't the most tasteful television show.  But sometimes it's biting sarcasm is spot on.  In the case of its March 8 episode, it seems like it gave the fundamentalist right in this country a quick little reality check over their vitriolic response to homosexuality.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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