The Anti-Gay Twist of the Balloon Boy Saga

by Michael Jones · 2009-10-19 04:56:00 UTC
Topics:

Balloon Boy

You know you have bad parents when they fool the the entire world into thinking that their six-year-old son is stuck in a balloon floating in the Colorado air. You know you have even worse parents when those same people allow their children to record a homophobic rap video, complete with lines like "I hate gay faggots, I hit 'em with a bat," and (possibly) "Faggot tried to pee on me."

Yup, it's official. The Balloon Boy saga has taken another turn for the absolute weird.

For those who have managed to escape the absurdity of this story, it all revolves around the Heene family in Colorado, and a set of parents, Richard and Mayumi, who have three children -- Falcon, Bradford and Ryo. The parents duped the world into believing that Falcon was caught in a balloon last week, while he was off either hanging in the rafters of the family's attic or down the street playing basketball (nobody knows where the hell he was -- it's just clear he wasn't in the balloon).

From there they did the world publicity tour, complete with Falcon throwing up on the Today Show after Meredith Vieira asked a question. That was followed by a weekend of police investigations, with a local Sheriff announcing that there's probable cause for the parents to be arrested for staging the balloon incident.

And now, to add even more dysfunction to this story, a homophobic rap video has taken the Twitter and YouTube worlds by storm, in which the three boys do a Beastie Boys-style rap to the tune of bashing gays, while the mother plays guitar and the father plays harmonica. Ah, nothing quite warms the soul like a group of six-to-ten year olds saying how much they want to throw rocks at faggots. It makes Buju Banton look like a Paul Anka concert.

Joe.My.God perhaps put it best when he said, "These children definitely need to be removed from the custody of their parents." You can watch the video below and make your own judgment. And the craziest news story of 2009 goes to... (I think we can end the competition early this year...I'm not sure I want to see the news story that tops this one).

One last point worth noting: isn't it scary that in Arkansas and Florida, gay people can't adopt. But the Heene family could? *shudder*

(Photo from the NY Daily News)

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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