Soap opera soap opera

Focus on the Family — through their “CitizenLink” affiliate — are having fits over … a soap opera. And not just any soap opera, but my own beloved All My Children.*

In a first for daytime television, two female characters were “married” during Monday’s episode of the ABC soap opera “All My Children.”

Throughout the entire article, “marry” gets “scare quotes” around it.

Thankfully, no one looks to soap operas for advice on families, said Glenn T. Stanton, director of family formation studies at Focus on the Family.

“The stories are sensationalistic and over the top,” he told CitizenLink.

Well, yes — they’re soap operas. It’s just as likely to turn out that they’re twin sisters separated at birth, or that one of them was married to the other one’s transgendered boyfriend, or that even though they were just married one of them is having a daring, shameful affair with … well, you get the idea.

Given the sort of behavior that goes on in soap operas, it’s kind of surprising that this is the most noteworthily objectionable item from FotF’s eyes.

“What is really offensive is their use of clergy to perform this genderless and unrealistic ‘marriage.’ “

Because, of course, no clergy would ever marry or join a same sex couple. Well, no real clergy, from a real Christian (or, when they agree with us, non-Christian) church. If they did — well, obviously they’re not for real. QED.

I love the use of the word “genderless,” by the way — because, clearly, it’s the genders involved that have FotF pitching a fit. Similarly, it’s the “realism” — that gays are marrying when given the opportunity — that’s what’s so objectionable here.

In real life, same-sex “weddings” are rare. Thirty states have voted to define marriage in their constitutions as the union between one man and one woman, while just two states have legalized homosexual “marriage.”

More scare quotes! Ooooooh!

Caleb Price, research analyst at Focus on the Family, said some writers in Hollywood are working to desensitize the public to homosexuality and “transgenderism.”

Note that, now that gays are much more mainstream in society, the concerted effort to link them to transgendered individuals, which are much less accepted by the public.

“They will continue to push the boundaries of what is morally and culturally permissible,” he said, “until Americans stand up to the studio execs and advertisers that produce these programs and say, ‘No more.’ ” 

Right. Because the soap operas are always focused on realism and socially acceptable behavior. “Wait — the man who turned out to be a Russian spy who slept with my mother is actually the father of my best friend’s love child who my evil twin is dating?” Yeah, much more acceptable than “Gay ‘Marriage.'”

Goofy.

*Mom and Nona both were faithful watchers of this show — which, in fact, drove both households to buy VCRs in the first place. I grew up with it, and it was a regular lunchtime staple at the dorm when I was in college. 

(via Right Wing Watch)