World of Intolerance

I was crushed last night when Allison Iraheta was sent home on American (only white men need apply) Idol. In a perfect world, the young woman who's initials are the same as those of the show she was recklessly cast out of, would have won. Best of luck to Allison and her future endeavours, now on with the rant.

I am not unreceptive to the chances of the first "gay" Idol. However, the show is truly shaping up to be the entertainment equivalent of the ignorance and intolerance we see all around us in the world today. A perceived good versus evil competition and depending on where your politics, ethics, and sexual orientation lay, will shape who you see as good and who you see as evil.

As anyone who spends any time on the Internet can tell you, messages boards, or comments on news pieces are a haven for trolls and vitriol spewing anonymous cowards. So while you may want to take this all with a grain of salt, there are still people behind these comments that think it is ok to hate and share their hateful beliefs.

As a lesbian, who has been happily in a relationship for 7 years now, I am happy with who I am. But because of Adam Lambert, because of Michael Slezak (a writer for EW.com) and because of these so called Christians that support that talentless hack Danny GOkey... (never said I was going to be not biased) homosexuality, gay marriage, racial profiling and other political topics are littered through out this years AI message boards.

It started out innocently enough I suppose, with the Adam Lambert pictures that surfaced early on in the competition. Certainly other AI contestants had been plagued by various scandals, and really was there anyone who really believed Clay Aiken was straight? But Adam seemed to mostly avoid the controversy until morons like Bill O'Reiley began thumping about the depravity of it all, a gay Idol.

But it has ramped up, I have seen so much hatred towards Allison, who if you watch her interactions, even before Rock Week with her fellow contestants, was just adorable. Just as much of a teenager as you want, but when it came time to perform, she was a professional and transformed into a potential star performer. Yet out came the trolls and the haters, in fact she was quite often referred to as a "troll doll" and bashed constantly for picking "adult" song choices.

I believe Allison really never established a fan base, not just because she was not that prepackaged Miley Cyrus, cotton candy tween idol, but because she does not fit the mold. Nor does Adam Lambert. So apparently this is a reason to hate by a lot of self proclaimed Christians who condemn homosexuality as the greatest of all sins. Honestly, I thought I had seen the passing of this kind of behavior in the nineties, and yet hear it is a decade and a half later rearing its ugly head.

Your right to love is not equal to that of straight people. Which brings us to the point of this rant, Adam Vs Danny, good vs evil or evil vs good depending on how butter your bread. In a time when gay marriage and equal rights for everyone, gay, straight, American or Immigrant. In a time when our first black president would like to see us united not further divided. We have this almost comically being played out on of all things, American Idol.

Neither of these men asked to be placed in these boxes of the Gay man vs the Church going straight man, but it exists. It is played out in chat rooms, message boards, Twitter and Facebook every week. It is getting hotly contested and neither side is backing down. I think it will be very interesting to see what happens when one of these two men wins the reality competition.

Or neither do, I do not with to be unfair to Kris Allen, but he has just been dragged along for the ride and while he may well win, or be the second finalist. He simply has not been anything other than that dreamy guy, which is probably why he will end up with a third place finish over the more talented fourth place troll doll.

So now that I have woven too many thoughts together in this muddled tapestry. The point I am trying to make is that our fascination with show, is mirroring our prejudices and beliefs in real life. Neither is right or wrong, and yet both are right, everyone has to think their opinion is the right and correct one, or they would not have it or such a fierce desire to defend that belief.

So next time you want to call someone a dyke on Twitter or draw penis shapes on images of certain reality show contestants. The next time you insist that certain widowers who work for churches are somehow more deserving to win reality shows. The next time you group all Christians into one lump and question why the male columnist is referring to his husband. Just stop. Stop and think what you saying, and how that may effect other people's feelings. Don't we have enough hate in this world without adding to it over the manipulations of TV producers just in it for a buck. Is really worth it?