As you’ve probably heard, a gay couple got married on a float in the Rose Parade on New Year’s Day. Three cheers for the happy couple, Danny Leclair and Aubrey Loots! But also boooooo to the TV stations that cut away from the parade so they wouldn’t have to show the wedding.
According to some angry Twitter users, who are never wrong, the offending stations include ABC, NBC, HGTV, and local station KTLA.
But wait! We went back and checked the KTLA broadcast (it’s about 8 minutes in to Part 8), and in fact the announcer makes a big freaking deal about the float. We don’t know why the Twitter people are complaining, because not only did the station focus directly on the couple, but also went on at length about how nice the whole thing was. There was nothing even remotely questionable about it. So, three cheers for KTLA and booooo to Twitter, we guess?
Apparently there was also a small group actually present at the parade to protest the wedding, but we haven’t been able to find any photos so it might just have been one or two weirdos. And in other parade excitement, a bunch of folks were arrested for protesting animal abuse at SeaWorld. And last year’s big debacle was over Farmer’s Insurance, which released a ton of a balloons that wound up polluting nearby nature. A busy day for anyone with a cause!
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Volvoguy
Watching al roker on NBC, he couldn’t tell the story
quick enough at the float and the aids org.
Talk about freaking our, oh my
Really Al!!!!
DShucking
So this is too much but we have to hear Al Roker tell us of the time he shit his pants in the White House. Assholes.
hyhybt
I didn’t see it, but also left the room briefly a couple of times and assumed it went by then. HGTV wasn’t running any commercials; out of curiosity, if anyone knows, how did they fill the gap?
Elloreigh
@hyhybt: HGTV showed the float and mentioned the couple about to be married on it before moving on to the next item in the parade. There was no explicit mention that it was a same-sex couple marrying. They did not showcase the exchanging of vows.
So there wasn’t really any gap to speak of.
hyhybt
@Elloreigh: That makes sense, thanks.
balehead
Al Roker is actually very homophobic to certain staff….
Meowzer
HGTV couldn’t get away from the float fast enough. They very quickly mentioned the organization sponsoring it and that was all. They jumped right to the band behind the float and spent the extra time on them. I’d have thought, given a lot of HGTV’s fan base is gay, they’d be a little more “sympathetic”.
jonjct
“it might just have been one or two weirdos”. why do you always have to call people names? i am tired of listening to it. you make yourself sound like a schoolyard bully by calling names. respect others views, even if they’re not the same as yours.
AuntieChrist
Typical response, no one wants to hear about AIDS these days especially gays, and people are tired of hearing about us pesky queers clamoring for equality, and how dare we do so on their holy football day…
Spike
Aids Healthcare Foundation has been very confrontational in recent years. Why have a single stereotypical male couple getting married on the float vrs multiple couples that reflect would better reflect the diversity of the LBBT community that could have gotten married the morning of the parade? The sole purpose of this float was to be controversial, which they accomplished, what else that was accomplished is questionable. And KTLA most def. covered the float.
Brendan
I watched ABC and recorded the NBC broadcast (because I foolishly thought they were different parades LOL) and they did not mention it all on the ABC broadcast. Instead they had Josh Elliot go on and on about the Beverly Hills float right before it – but you could see it right there behind it. And when they came back from commercial, they were talking about a float with dogs on it. On the NBC broadcast though, Al Roker and his co-host did talk about the float and they showed it for a nice amount of time, so I was glad that I accidentally recorded that version of the parade too.
avesraggiana
Let’s face it. People, straight men in particular, generally have no difficulty in getting on board the idea of gayness or even marriage equality. BUT, what’s taking longer to get over is the “Eeeew Factor” of seeing two men kiss or even hold hands.
ronwol
Havving watched the parade on HGTV, wondered why they didn’t show the ceremony on the air. I a good friend on mine who was at the parade and in years past has worked the cameras for the parade told me what happened. If you watched on HGTV, there were time when they showed the parade from a distance, and you could see, down by the street, cameras mounted on long booms, these were used for the close-up views of the floats. The have a very limited side-to-side, and up-and-down movement. So the float have to be in a certain spot when it stops inorder for the camera to be focused on the float. In the case of the “wedding” float, it stopped short of the mark where it should have stopped. Therfore the cameras could not focus of the couple being married. As the float moved forward in the parade, you could then see the couple, but it was after they had been married and had kissed. So if you want to get upset and in a “hissie fit” over not being able to see the “wedding” itself, blame the float driver and spotter, not HGTV.
KittyLitter
People still watch this?