After a couple rounds of pestering from GLAAD, ABC has refused to apologize or clarify Sherri Shepherd’s remarks on The View about how closeted black men are to blame for the black community’s disproportionately high HIV rates, ignoring that other little factor known as “intravenous drug use.” And now the Today show, which is hosting “TODAY’s Wedding: Modern Love” — a wedding contest for one lucky couple — says it isn’t budging on its heterosexuals-only policy because it’s paying for a ceremony to take place in New York only, and the marriage must be legally valid.
Which is news to contestants, notes GLAAD, which notes Today‘s rules about the contest say nothing about a New York-only location.
So the television show that welcomes folks like Meredith Baxter on the air to come out won’t let them be eligible for a free wedding. Got it. What’s on The Early Show?
dvlaries
I’ll never forgive Lauer.
“Have you ever had sex with another man?” That’s the one question -and the exact phrasing- he didn’t put to Larry Craig when he had an entire hour of primetime to do it. When Craig would then lie and say no, that would have been the mainstream media open door to everyone who came along to claim otherwise.
Not the loophole question, “Are you gay?”
Cunnilingus Broadcasting Network
The Early Show?
A cooking segment will be aired: “Pussy seasoning – how to make your man drool over your summer snatch!”
Qjersey
GLAAD are wimps. What happened to the days of protesting outside corporate headquarters. Oh yeah, GLAAD takes corporate donations.
s_b
I wonder if New York has antidiscrimination laws that would apply to the Today Show contest?
Mark
I rarely watch this program as I don’t care for Lauer or Vierra – now, I will never turn the television channel to this show…ever again.
Mark
Same with The View — though that was only on the one off I happened to flip the remote and it would land there – is rather amusing to see Hasselbeck trip all over herself some times. Seems we’re going back in to the dark ages here.
Tom B
bull-fucking-shit. Before issuing lame statements that skirt thier own discrimination, perhaps Today’s producers should read NY law. The state recognizes same-sex marriages performed out of state. All that a couple would have to do is take a 20 minute ride over the massachusetts border, get a marriage license, and then have the ceremony in NY.
I’m still waiting for an explanation as to how Adam Lambert’s kiss was more offensive than any M-F kiss that networks show all the time….
Cam
Fuck them.
NAP79
The bigger question here is – Who actually watches or cares about The Today Show? Its complete garbage and Matt Lauer is the poorest excuse for a journalist next to the idiots on The Insider.
slobone
The last I heard, they said same-sex contestants would be eligible as long as one of them agreed to be the bride and one agreed to be the groom. Was that just a (not very funny) joke?
Hilarious
Wait. Why are you watching a network that is clearly skewed towards republicans in the first place?
Do they need to change the turkey to an elephant for you to “get it”?
Brutus
@Tom B: Uh, no. Massachusetts has a residency requirement.
Paid To Protest
GLAAD is irrelevant.
Brutus
GLAAD is not irrelevant. Media presence and portrayals are critical to winning hearts and minds.
Some Dyke
@Brutus: No, the residency requirement was repealed in 2008. Of course, that’s totally irrelevant because New York queers can just drive 30 minutes to Greenwich, Connecticut and get married there.
Brutus
@Some Dyke: Good to know! I hadn’t heard that.
jason
There are an enormous number of homophobes in the television industry. They’re afraid of our erotic interactions, especially if it’s two men. Even something as innocent as kissing is classified as “porn” by these homophobic types.
As for NBC’s Today Show, it’s putrid.
hephaestion
So. It would kill the Today Show to hold the wedding in the Connecticut suburbs if a gay couple won their dumb-ass contest?
Fuck the Today Show.
GimmeaBreak
This is a “news” show that routinely trots out Ann Coulter. So, what else do you expect?
The Wedding segment is so tired, any way. The first couple of years the segment was cute. But, after 10 years can’t the producers come up with something new & original? Then again, they did milk the “Where in the world is Matt Lauer?” segment for nearly 10 years. Can’t expect a show that’s nowhere near cutting edge to actually be open to marriage equality.
And the third hour (like it’s interesting enough to even warrant a 2nd hour) features Kathy Lee Gifford, the child labor queen. Give me a break. That hour also routinely features Donny Deutsch as a guest – a total douchedick.
I can’t believe any self-respecting LGBT couple would want to be on this freakfest of a show.
hephaestion
Watch Good Morning America instead. It has gay Sam and lesbian Robin on it, so why watch the freaking Christian bimbos on Today? Today has gone downhill bigtime.
Jeremy
ABC refused to apologize for Sherri Shepherd’s cunt mouth? ABC is the “gayest” network with shows like DWTS, the Bachelors, Ugly Betty. Those self-hating gays better have their dignity checked.
slobone
@hephaestion: In fairness, I’m pretty sure the wedding is supposed to take place in their studio, that’s the whole point. But the smart thing to do would have been to revise the rules once the same-sex problem was pointed out. (Either that or, if you want to be cynical, they could have avoided the whole fuss by not commenting on it).
I don’t particularly think NBC is any more pro- or anti-gay than anybody else. This was the network of Will and Grace, after all, not to mention that they own Bravo (who featured a gay-wedding reality show way before anybody else). But it sounds like they don’t really get how the world is changing around them.
tazz602
While ABC might be “gay friendly” with shows like Modern Family and Brothers and Sisters, they are proving more and more that they are not friends of the gays. It’s time to ignore the programming just as we should Pres. Obama’s token gestures, and hold them up for their direct actions that hurt and discriminate against us. Time for a boycott, plain and simple.
blakjaxx
I’m no fan of Sherri Shepherd, but I don’t think ABC should apologize for the statements she made because it is the truth, and I say this as a gay black man and one who has slept with down low brothas. Not one of them has ever asked about condoms as a matter of fact I’ve had to explain to most why I’m using one and why they should use one if they are playing both sides of the fence.
CaliberGuy
I may be more “forgiving” but I don’t think it’s a hatred of gay people, but a concern of the fact that things have changed and but that change has made for a very complicated situation when it comes to gays getting married out of state when theirs dose not recognise it, so the easier solution is to stick with the tried and true old formula of in studio one man one woman. Not to mention that its not good as a news outlet to very potentially create news when the newly wed gay couple returns home hand has issues.
JamesStone
All the couple has to do is get the marriage license in CT and have the ceremony in NY. NY recognizes marriages from out of state.
jason
JamesStone,
Good point.
Jin Lee
First off, it needs to be noted LGBT community should stop supporting television programming that does not support them. I actually broke up with a guy for being a fan of The View…(amongst other reasons)…NO self respecting gay man watches drivel like ‘The View’ that constantly perpetuates anti gay slants under the false misguided mechanism of “opinion sharing” and Sherri Shepard is THE most vile, ignorant, disgusting piece of bacteria walking our planet and her anti trans, anti gay marriage, anti gay pride, and anti gay blood donation show you we should be ANTI everything that attaches this ‘woman’ to it. Period.
Matt Lauer? go to you tube and take a little look on his interview with Carrie Prejean from last year. Short of saying “Carrie, I agree with you, F*CK THOSE NASTY GAYS!” he and his fawning said it all.
Gays, learn to support your own, or support those who support you or no gay rights for you. Point blank.
Ritein
@blakjaxx: Do you agree with her then that we as the gay community should be shunned from donating blood to a great cause that potentially saves thousands of lives simply due to being gay? Then you must also agree that straight black woman should also be shunned from same practice due to their alarmingly high AIDS rates…..No? Try giving a non homophobic, non hypocritical response as to why. You failed before you even started because just as Shepard did, you are making GAYS (by in large, responsible non STD infected AIDS) pay for the lack of good judgment of others (pick a condom and learn to use it) and that my friend *is* the most vivid form of homophobia.
Roger
@blakjaxx: If you’re knowingly sleeping with DL men, you might want to take a moment for self-reflection. Further, your anecdotes do not count as “evidence.”
Brian Miller
Television networks? Really? TV viewership is collapsing. GLAAD and old media are increasingly irrelevant. Who cares what those fossils think?
William
Why all the drama? Getting married on TV is best left to the trailer park demographic. Geez.
Queer Supremacist
The Today Show jumped the shark when they fired J. Fred Muggs. Only provincial breeders watch this trash.
zzx
This is a thing of beauty, it is the paradise of the woman, man
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