The winners of the third season of NBC’s The Sing-Off, an cappella group called Pentatonix, made sure to mention that they represented The Trevor Project, a suicide prevention organization for LGBTQ youth. But the viewers will never know that because NBC edited out the letters LGBT from their broadcast… twice.
Art Reker from AfterElton has more:
[The Sing-Off‘s host Nick] Lachey introduced The Trevor Project segment by noting that when members of Pentatonix were younger, “they faced challenges because they were different,” and that they had chosen to highlight “an organization working to help bullied youth.”
Bullied youth? Partially true. But The Trevor Project very specifically seeks to provide suicide prevention services to LGBTQ youth. Was it too much for a prime time audience to hear those words and initials? It’s like noting that the Susan G. Komen foundation helps people with chest problems.
Then come the edits. Scott Hoying, an adorable blond member of Pentatonix, is on screen at the start of the segment and just as he is about to utter the LGBTQ acronym, the camera cuts away. The same thing happens when The Trevor Project representative David McFarland explains, on camera, the organization’s mission. Again, as he is about to say “LGBTQ,” the producers cut away and the initials are edited out…
Now here’s the part where NBC releases a statement saying that it values all viewers, supports diversity and opposes all forms of discrimination and bullying, including those based on sexual orientation and gender identity. Then NBC will say they edited it out purely in the interest of fitting the program within its allotted time slot. Bloggers will grumble, then everyone will forget about it, just like when they unintentionally omitted Matthew Mitcham’s boyfriend during the Beijing Olympics.
jason
NBC is ia homophobic organization. It is probably the most homophobic out of all the TV channels.
Continuum
I had noticed the same ommission while watching. I wondered why they didn’t mention the GLBQT link. Now, I know that it was NBC intentionally censoring the message.
Chadboy
Weird seeing that the head of NBC Programming is Bob Greenblatt who is gay.
Jon
The majority of television viewers have no idea what LGBT standts for, let alone GLBQT et
Matt
All I know is that Scott Hoying is beautiful. Openly gay? He’s my future husband.
NovaNardis
@Jon: What evidence do you have that that’s true? Even if it *were*, would that excuse it?
Aubrey Haltom
I noticed the omissions while watching the broadcast (and mentioned them to my husband). It seemed at best, odd, at worst, insulting.
The following group supported a sickle cell foundation. And there was no mention of the demographic most affected by sickle cell anemia.
Both charities were presented without any mention of their constituencies.
But the Trevor Project stood out (imo). The editing was too apparent not to miss.
bagooka
Gay Americans have a lot to contribute to this country. It’s a shame that a major network like NBC doesn’t want to encourage the gay adults who have a positive message for gay kids.
Henry
@bagooka: Unfortunately, the good things that gay people can do are often forgotten by straight and bisexual Americans.
o
@Henry: That reminds me of how you curled up like a dead spider when that happened to you, Henry. The little boys who killed you kept poking you long after the moment of death.
Jon
I’m on a steering committee for one of the big gay non-profits that Queerty isn’t fond of. We recently did a nationwide study of familiarity and preference of differnt terms (LGBT, Gay, Homosexual etc) among straight people. LGBT was the least recognized and least preferred. Agree that there probably was a way for the show to make it clear that it was an organization aimed at helping gay teens. But from my experience NBC is usually a very gay friendly network both in front of and behind the camera.
Tom
@Jon: Come on, that’s a heck of a stretch. If LGBT is too confusing, and that was their reason, why do you suppose NBC didn’t say that to the performers or Trevor Project staff? And ask them to say the words rather than acronym?
Even if NBC is good otherwise, what they did this time was fucked up and they need to be held accountable. Erasing LGBT youth and preventing actual LGBT kids from knowing there’s a resource when they’re considering killing themselves is not “very gay friendly.”