Thursday, 25 January 2007

God Doesn't Really Hate Fags

Is the Most Homophobic Video Ever actually the Biggest Ex-Gay Satire Ever?

Since the 'God Hates a Fag'
video spread out across the 'Net this week, gays everywhere have been channeling their favorite Charlie's angel and sleuthing to get to the bottom of a Christian rock music video so anti-gay -- and yet so gay -- no one was sure if it was real or a hoax.

Now there are strong signs pointing to it being a slick parody of the ex-gay Christian movement. Joe.My.God
has word that ex-gay minister/singer Donnie Davies featured in the video is really actor Todd Quillen. He's straight, according to his MySpace page -- where he also offers moustache rides for a dollar.

Blogger Simon Jones deconstructs several elements in the video, including fake guitar playing and Davies' "bands to watch out for" -- tagged as such because they turn kids gay. (My favorite: Cole Porter.) I especially appreciated Jones' point about YouTube's decision to remove the video from their service: "Ironic then that the video sharing site have never felt the same sense of urgency to remove any of the actual God Hates Fags spew that comes from the Westboro Baptist Church and the Reverend Fred Phelps."

"Donnie Davies" posted another video on YouTube yesterday which he describes as "a little chat with Donnie about what has been happening." Here, his gimmick already seems more transparent:




By the way, 71 percent of readers voted "joke" in a poll on this blog two days ago.



So if the whole thing is a joke, what are your thoughts? Is it a publicity stunt for an actor or an upcoming "thing" (movie, online show, etc.), or is it satire intended to educate and serve a greater purpose? And if the latter, does it succeed?

One other thing: Dan Savage, one of my favorite homosexuals of all time ever, has been positively apoplectically obsessed with the issue of whether the video is real or not. He blogs about it here, here, here, here, and here. Oh, and here. Dan: Please! You're going to give yourself a heart attack. Calm down. You have a child to raise. xoxo


 


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Re: "So if the whole thing is a joke, what are your thoughts? Is it a publicity stunt for an actor or an upcoming 'thing' (movie, online show, etc.), or is it satire intended to educate and serve a greater purpose? And if the latter, does it succeed?"

Whether its the former or the latter, I think that the impact of the latter is still felt.  Anyone who took the "God Hates a Fag" video seriously was already a hatemonger; anyone else who saw it got a little more gay-inclusive just by watching -- it was SO ridiculous and hilarious.

Therefore, I don't really care what Quillen's primary motive was -- and if it was for a movie deal, I hope he gets it.  He's just gotta be a friend of the 'mos ... after seeing the original video, I can't quite get my head around the alternative.

Anonymous said...

HAHAHAHA I love how he was happy through the whole movie. Smiling and such. It takes someone special to make a movie such as that...I'm sorry but this is hilarious. Wow. If god didn't want me to be gay, then he would've made me straight. So don't think god hates us just because you do.

"I chose to be gay, the same day you chose to be straight."