Cartier Straight-Washes Ad Campaign

Cartier is being accused of straight-washing a Chinese ad.

In a new campaign for its classic Trinity ring you see several of people, like a man and woman dancing on a rooftop, two women holding hands, and two men bicycling and embracing one another. The advertisement ends with a question: "How far would you go for love?"

The ad clearly shows a straight couple, a lesbian couple and a gay couple, but shoppers at Tmall—China's premiere digital shopping marketplace—say that the same-sex couples in the video are also featured as still-image ads … with captions claiming their relationships are strictly platonic. 

Under the image of two women it says:

"Mutual understanding beyond words. Witness our everlasting friendship."

Under the two men it reads:

"Father and son are also friends—happily sharing life's journey."

When users pointed out that the two men seemed quite close in age, the text was altered:

"Father and son are like brothers."

Wait, so women who are “just friends” buy matching rings? And fathers and sons buy matching bands, too. C’mon Cartier. The Trinity band, designed in 1924, is actually three bands that symbolize different aspects of a relationship, but is often used as a wedding ring and almost always associated with lovers.

In a statement responding to the confusion, Cartier stood by the gifting of the ring, which can retail over $3,000, for friendship and "family love."

Nice try. We know that same-sex relationships in China are not illegal but remain culturally taboo, and censorship of LGBTQ-inclusive media, such as the queer kiss scenes in Bohemian Rhapsody, is common, but then maybe don’t air your clearly meant to be gay men and women ads in China. Shell out some extra coins for a new, straights only campaign.

Don’t erase gay people. It’s demeaning, degrading and just plain wrong.

The Advocate

Bobservations

Jason Katims, right, the co-creator of Rise, a new show on NBC this March, changed the sexual orientation of the main character in order to connect with the story.

Cuz, you know, connecting with gay people is so hard to do.

Katims adapted the true story of an openly gay high school drama teacher, Lou Volpe, who put on a production of Spring Awakening, but Katims decided to depict the teacher as heterosexual because, as he says, it makes it easier for him “to connect with the story.”

Oh, but never fear, there are some minor gay characters and storylines, you know, the “less than” kind, and Katims has given the no longer gay teacher a “son with a drinking problem” to better connect with audiences.

So, um, I guess having an underaged alcoholic is more acceptable than a gay lead character?

Pass.

Asshatted South Carolina Republican Congressman, Trey Gowdy, is stepping down from his role on the House Ethics Committee because of, ahem a “challenging workload.”

Gowdy faced criticism last year after it was revealed that he used $150,000 in taxpayer dollars to settle a dispute with a former aide, who had accused him of firing him after the man refused to focus his work on investigating former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Ethics. Gowdy has none.

And while searching for a photo of him for this piece, I realized he doesn’t have a stylist because gurl really needs help with her hair.

In High-larious news, the _____ brand is getting hit hard after the Fat Bastard’s shithole comments about Africa, Haiti, and El Salvador.

_____ hotels across the country are being targeted by Yelp users leaving one–star reviews and describing the facilities as shitholes.

In fact, these new shithole reviews caused the _____ International Hotel in Washington, DC, to temporarily drop to a two–star rating, down from its average of four stars. One David K. from San Antonio said:

“A real shithole. Owned by a malignant racist. Pee on the sheets. KKK in the lobby. Russians all over the place. Sad! Steaks over cooked with ketchup. Bibles in the rooms are missing lots of commandments. Mini-bar only has diet coke and Big Macs. Fourth rate shithole.”

Like I said, high-larious … especially when you add it that artists around the world are using lights to project the word “shithole” onto facades of _____ hotels.

Loving it!

In good news … the chances of _____ facing impeachment are going up with the idea that the Democrats will take back the House this year.

A House Democratic takeover is now highly likely. It would take a flip of just 24 seats for Democrats to take over, and the average loss for the president’s party in his first midterm is about 32 seats; but rumor has it the GOP could lose upwards of 40 seats.

But, and pay attention, this won’t happen unless you register and vote, and get your friends to register and vote.

Send the Fat Bastard packing.

In Stupid News … Paul Ryan—see what I did there—stood on his tippy-toes to announce that in just 20 days, Americans have seen more than 2 million workers getting raises and bonuses.

He forgot to mention that in 20 days, many corporations announced layoffs of employees:

Carrier fired 215 workers

Walmart laid off more than 3,000 workers

Sam’s closed 63 stores, laying off 9,000 people GE laid off 12,00

AT&T 1,300 workers

Tenet Healthcare 2,000 employees laid off

Pfizer 300

Wells Fargo will close 800 branches by 2020

Lyin’ Paul Ryan forgot to mention that.

In more Stupid News … when racist white supremacists Joe Arpaio accepted a pardon from _____ after his conviction for violating a court order, he didn’t realize that by accepting the pardon meant that he admitted the wrongdoing, because, why accept a pardon over something you didn’t do?

When MSNBC’s Ari Melber broke the news to Arpaio, who recently announced his candidacy for United States Senate, Arpaio insisted he did nothing wrong, only for Melber to inform him that he’s already said otherwise.

Asshat.

Last week figure skater Adam Rippon because the first openly gay male athlete to qualify for the Winter Olympics, but now another out gay man is joining him, though he’s competing for Canada.

Eric Radford—who publicly came out in 2014—says he was teased mercilessly as a child, not only because figure skating was considered “gay” but because he had a lisp. Still, he says that being gay in figure skating pairs had its advantages:

 “A lot of pairs end up dating one another. It can become risky because your on-ice training can be affected by your off-ice relationship. If you have a fight at home, it makes that training difficult. I used to joke around that I’m the ultimate pair-boy. I never had to worry about developing an off-ice relationship.”

Radford and his boyfriend had been together four years, are raising a daughter together and now they’re engaged.

Congrats on all fronts!

More Shithole News … a Zambia tourism website appears to have been inspired by _____’s racism and has launched that ad inviting tourists to:

"Visit shithole Zambia ... Where the only stars and stripes you'll have to see are in the sky and on a zebra." 

Suh-nap!

Okay … Hot men.

We had a trifecta of them when we watched The Girl on the Train, a murder mystery that was not so mysterious as I figured out the ending about a third of the way through.

Yet that did not keep me from enjoying the sights of Luke Evans, and his beautiful rear-end—and it doesn’t hurt that Evans is openly gay—along with the always steamy Justin Theroux and new crush Edgar Ramirez. There were women in the movie, too, I mean, the girl on the train, but it was these three that captured my attention.

Just sayin’

On This Date In ISBL History:CBS Films Straight-Washes 'Pride'

As Carlos and I are in sunny Miami for business and pleasure, I thought I’d do something I’ll call “On This Date In ISBL History” and repost some things from back when the blog was new, and newish … this was originally published January 6, 2015:

CBS Films Straight-Washes 'Pride'

It was hard for a gay when I was a kid. I mean, I didn’t see myself on TV — there was no Will & Grace and Ellen or Cam and Mitchell, no Queer As Folk or Looking. The only remotely gay-ish characters were generally played by Terry-Thomas onscreen or Paul Lynde on television, so I thought being gay meant I had to wear paisley and ascots and velvet smoking jackets and talk with a lisp and call myself a “confirmed bachelor.”

That wasn’t me, but those are the only images I saw because The Gays were often scrubbed from movies since it was assumed that Mr. and Mrs. America didn’t want to see that kinda stuff when they went to the picture shows.

So it was common for gay characters and gay stories to be scrubbed clean of The Gay; gay characters were changed to straight, or the fact that they were gay in the books on which the films were based, was simply left out of the film adaptation altogether.

Like Corporal Fife in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. In the book by James Jones, you find Fife bunking in a shelter tent next to Private Bead, and the two decide to, ahem, “help each other out” one rainy night. Not so much in the film.

And what about Justin McLeod in The Man Without A Face? In Isabelle Holland’s book, the disfigured lead character was definitely gay, but when it came to selling the book to Hollywood, and noted homophobe Mel Gibson, who would direct the film and play McLeod, the character was suddenly heterosexual.

And we cannot forget the character of Ruth Jamison in Fried Green Tomatoes. In Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe there is a very clear intimate lesbian relationship between Ruth and her girlfriend Idgie but suddenly in the film Ruth is hung up on a boy.

Even Ben-Hur was supposed to be gay! When it came to writing the script for the chariot epic starring Charlton Heston, Gore Vidal made note of a romantic connection in Lew Wallace's 1880 manuscript between Ben and his friend Messala. But, according to a letter Vidal received from Heston, he and director William Wyler wanted the gay erased from the script. Heston would not be playing gay.

Paul Newman’s Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was alleged to be gay, grieving the suicide of his ‘friend’ Skipper’ but the film remains ambiguous; Newman’s Brick is just a drunk.

And what about Celie in The Color Purple? In the film, Celie and Shug steal a kiss, though Whoopi Goldberg, who played Celie, says the kiss was simply about “love and tenderness ... It has nothing to do with lesbianism. It has to do with, her eyes are opened, now she understands." Funny then, that Alice Walker's novel takes the relationship a lot further than a kiss.

See what I mean, though? The Gays have been straight-washed from films for years; made straight, or maybe just made lonely and desperate for affection so they might share a kiss or a hand job to stave off the isolation. But times have changed, right? There are all kinds of gay characters in films; hell, there are entire films made about The Gays, and it’s a good thing.

But then, please to explain this: an LGBT film, with real LGBT characters, based on real-life LGBT people, has been closeted for its DVD release in America.

The film is a British import, Pride, based on the true story of a group of English gay and lesbian activists who stood in solidarity with coal miners during a 1984 strike. But the artwork, and the synopsis, for the film have been straight-washed for the American public for some reason.

The original synopsis for release in the UK, says:

“PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person…”

But the synopsis on the US DVD box says: 

“PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984 and much of blue-collar Great Britain is on strike. For one tiny Welsh village, the strike brings unexpected visitors – a group of London-based activists who decide to raise money to support strikers’ families and want to make their donations in person.”

And what about the artwork? The UK version — at the top — clearly has a sign about LGBT support of the miners, but the US version — at the bottom — has the sign removed; erased. No gays.

A rep for CBS Films, which acquired US rights, said the company is looking into the situation — which reads as ‘Oops, we got caught and now we’ll back-pedal” — and makes note that their website for the film keeps the LGBT in it.

How is it that we’re in 2014, and a major film-distribution company wants to straight-wash the gay references from a film that is based on a true story about gay people? And don't think the irony of straight-washing a film called 'Pride' is lost on anyone.

We think we’ve come so far but we’re still being marginalized by some folks who wish, maybe, we didn’t exist; at least when it comes to making them some money.

We saw this film on Showtime recently and the film is very gay, and by that I mean, it is the story of a group of LGBT activist who stood up for, and with, the miners.

But you’d never have known that by the CBS Films description.

CBS Films Straight-Washes 'Pride'

It was hard for a gay when I was a kid. I mean, I didn’t see myself on TV — there was no Will & Grace and Ellen or Cam and Mitchell, no Queer As Folk or Looking. The only remotely gay-ish characters were generally played by Terry-Thomas onscreen or Paul Lynde on television, so I thought being gay meant I had to wear paisley and ascots and velvet smoking jackets and talk with a lisp and call myself a “confirmed bachelor.”

That wasn’t me, but those are the only images I saw because The Gays were often scrubbed from movies since it was assumed that Mr. and Mrs. America didn’t want to see that kinda stuff when they went to the picture shows.

So it was common for gay characters and gay stories to be scrubbed clean of The Gay; gay characters were changed to straight, or the fact that they were gay in the books on which the films were based, was simply left out of the film adaptation altogether.

Like Corporal Fife in Terrence Malick’s The Thin Red Line. In the book by James Jones, you find Fife bunking in a shelter tent next to Private Bead, and the two decide to, ahem, “help each other out” one rainy night. Not so much in the film.

And what about Justin McLeod in The Man Without A Face? In Isabelle Holland’s book, the disfigured lead character was definitely gay, but when it came to selling the book to Hollywood, and noted homophobe Mel Gibson, who would direct the film and play McLeod, the character was suddenly heterosexual.

And we cannot forget the character of Ruth Jamison in Fried Green Tomatoes. In Fannie Flagg's 1987 novel Fried Green Tomatoes at the Whistle Stop Cafe there is a very clear intimate lesbian relationship between Ruth and her girlfriend Idgie but suddenly in the film Ruth is hung up on a boy.

Even Ben-Hur was supposed to be gay! When it came to writing the script for the chariot epic starring Charlton Heston, Gore Vidal made note of a romantic connection in Lew Wallace's 1880 manuscript between Ben and his friend Messala. But, according to a letter Vidal received from Heston, he and director William Wyler wanted the gay erased from the script. Heston would not be playing gay.

Paul Newman’s Brick in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was alleged to be gay, grieving the suicide of his ‘friend’ Skipper’ but the film remains ambiguous; Newman’s Brick is just a drunk.

And what about Celie in The Color Purple? In the film, Celie and Shug steal a kiss, though Whoopi Goldberg, who played Celie, says the kiss was simply about “love and tenderness ... It has nothing to do with lesbianism. It has to do with, her eyes are opened, now she understands." Funny then, that Alice Walker's novel takes the relationship a lot further than a kiss.

See what I mean, though? The Gays have been straight-washed from films for years; made straight, or maybe just made lonely and desperate for affection so they might share a kiss or a hand job to stave off the isolation. But times have changed, right? There are all kinds of gay characters in films; hell, there are entire films made about The Gays, and it’s a good thing.

But then, please to explain this: an LGBT film, with real LGBT characters, based on real-life LGBT people, has been closeted for its DVD release in America.

The film is a British import, Pride, based on the true story of a group of English gay and lesbian activists who stood in solidarity with coal miners during a 1984 strike. But the artwork, and the synopsis, for the film have been straight-washed for the American public for some reason.

The original synopsis for release in the UK, says:

“PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984, Margaret Thatcher is in power and the National Union of Mineworkers is on strike, prompting a London-based group of gay and lesbian activists to raise money to support the strikers’ families. Initially rebuffed by the Union, the group identifies a tiny mining village in Wales and sets off to make their donation in person…”

But the synopsis on the US DVD box says: 

“PRIDE is inspired by an extraordinary true story. It’s the summer of 1984 and much of blue-collar Great Britain is on strike. For one tiny Welsh village, the strike brings unexpected visitors – a group of London-based activists who decide to raise money to support strikers’ families and want to make their donations in person.”

And what about the artwork? The UK version — at the top — clearly has a sign about LGBT support of the miners, but the US version — at the bottom — has the sign removed; erased. No gays.

A rep for CBS Films, which acquired US rights, said the company is looking into the situation — which reads as ‘Oops, we got caught and now we’ll back-pedal” — and makes note that their website for the film keeps the LGBT in it.

How is it that we’re in 2014, and a major film-distribution company wants to straight-wash the gay references from a film that is based on a true story about gay people? And don't think the irony of straight-washing a film called 'Pride' is lost on anyone.

We think we’ve come so far but we’re still being marginalized by some folks who wish, maybe, we didn’t exist; at least when it comes to making them some money.

via THR and Mental Floss

Is CBS Afraid Of The Gay?

There's a new View coming up.

I know! Do we really need another View?

Well, apparently CBS, and Sara Gilbert, think so.

This fall CBS will begin airing a Sara Gilbert [Darlene from TVs Roseanne] produced, View-like talk show featuring a bunch of women sharing their, well, views.

But, while Gilbert is the Executive Producer of the show, and it seems to have been her idea, her life as an openly gay woman is too much for CBS to deal with, though they have no issues with detailing the personal lives of the other women--Julie Chen, Sharon Osbourne, Holly Robinson Peete, Leah Remini, and Marissa Jaret Winokur--on the show.

From a CBS press release touting the new show:

Julie Chen . . . lives in New York and Los Angeles with her husband, Leslie Moonves, with whom she has a son and 3 stepchildren.
Holly Robinson Peete . . . and her husband of 15 years are the proud parents of four children. They currently reside in Los Angeles.
Sharon Osbourne . . . lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Ozzy Osbourne. They have three children.
Leah Remini . . . lives in Los Angeles with her husband, Angelo Pagan, and daughter and three stepsons.
Marissa Jaret Winokur . . . and her husband, comedy writer Judah Miller, reside in Los Angles [sic] with their son Zev.
Sara Gilbert . . . lives in Los Angeles with her family.

Now, to be fair, in another press release, this one from CBS News, Sara Gilbert does get the full treatment: "Gilbert is a lesbian mom, raising two children with partner Allison Adler."

But still, the network seems kind of intent on playing down the lesbian partnership and parenting aspect of one of their co-hosts while playing up those same things in the others.

I'm not sure I like that view.