Saturday, April 26, 2008
Today.Saturday.Another act of homophobia by the Media Development Authority (MDA).
Just weeks after Starhub was fined $10,000 for showing a lesbian kissing scene, another TV station has been slapped with a fine.
TV Channel 5 has been fined by the Media Development Authority (MDA) for an episode in an acquired series, “Find and Design”. The episode normalises and promotes a gay lifestyle and was aired on Sunday, 13 January 2008 at 7.30am.
The programme “Find and Design” is a home and decor series and in the episode concerned, the host helps a gay couple to transform their game room into a new nursery for their adopted baby. The episode contained several scenes of the gay couple with their baby as well as the presenter’s congratulations and acknowledgement of them as a family unit in a way which normalises their gay lifestyle and unconventional family setup. This is in breach of the Free-to-Air TV Programme Code which disallows programmes that promote, justify or glamourise gay lifestyles.
MDA also consulted the Programme Advisory Committee for English Programmes (PACE) and the Committee was also of the view that a gay relationship should not be presented as an acceptable family unit. As the programme was shown on a Sunday morning, PACE felt that this was inappropriate as such a timeslot was within family viewing hours.
Taking into account the severity of the breach, the telecast time of the programme and the fact that this was a second breach for MediaCorp TV, MDA found that a financial penalty was warranted and issued MediaCorp TV a fine of $15,000.
Indeeed, the idea of a happy gay couple with a happy family is such a threat to Singapore. Only 'sissy' or 'murderous' gays and lesbians can be potrayed on TV, such as a sissy hairdresser (which irritates me). Like what one of my friend mentioned, "Once again, the authorities fail to recognise that there can be no “promotion” of homosexuality - people are either queer or they are not.
What is this harm that they are bending over backwards to protect the people from? Because, the only thing that will result from watching the program is that maybe more people will be more accepting of homosexuality and learn that it is possible to have a happy gay family, that we are not all drug-using promiscuous unhappy people.
Once again, this change in attitude, the acknowledgment that gay people are human, does not mean that they are going to BE gay. We are normal people living normal lives, paying our mortgages and taxes, going to work, contributing to society."
Again recently, 3-minute segment of the Ellen DeGeneres Show where the host condemned homophobia and spoke about the recent fatal shooting of a 15-year-old gay student in school, was censored on MediaCorp’s Channel 5.
A source who alerted Fridae about the omitted segment said she first saw the episode online and was looking out for it on local TV as it was a powerful appeal urging viewers to reexamine their misconceptions about gay people.
The episode, which aired Feb 28 in the US and Apr 24 in Singapore, showed the usually cheerful talk show host nearing tears as she spoke about the circumstances surrounding the murder.
The day before Larry was murdered, he had asked his killer and schoolmate, Brandon, to be his Valentine. “I don't want to be political, this is not political, I'm not a political person but this is personal to me. A boy has been killed and a number of lives have been ruined and somewhere along the line, the killer, Brandon, got the message that it’s so threatening and so awful and so horrific that Larry would want to be his Valentine; that killing Larry seemed to be the right thing to do. And when the message out there is so horrible that to be gay, you can get killed for it, we need to change the message.”
The openly gay host added: “Larry was not a second-class citizen. I'm not a second-class citizen. It is OK if you are gay." “I would like you to start paying attention to how often being gay is the punchline of a monologue or how often gay jokes are in a movie,” DeGeneres said. “And that kind of message, laughing at someone because they’re gay, is just the beginning. It starts with laughing at someone, and then it’s verbal abuse, then it’s physical abuse, and it’s this kid Brandon killing a kid like Larry.”
Like the source, I was looking forward to Ellen's message, but soon realised that it has been censored out. Again, is the act of fighting against homophobia, a hate crime, such a horrible message that the MDA has to censor that out?
And all these, it dawned on me that I will not tolerate any more 'sissy' or gay jokes that my friends and family tend to make. Once I was too scared to voice out. Now I realised that it is up to individuals to start changing the mindsets of those around them.