Pixar's Lightyear Is Triggering the Latest Right-Wing Anti-LGBTQ+ Panic | Vanity Fair
By: CALEB ECARMA
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The conservative outrage machine has picked its next target and it's about to hit theaters: Disney-Pixar's Lightyear, the Toy Story spin-off movie out Friday. "Disney works to push a 'not-at-all-secret gay agenda'…Parents should keep that in mind before deciding whether to take their kids to see 'Lightyear,'" tweeted Ben Shapiro, one of the most popular right-wing podcast hosts. His post included a screenshot from the upcoming animated movie that features two lesbian parents embracing each other. "Children are not adults. What may be appropriate for adults is not appropriate for children," the podcaster continued. "That this must be said demonstrates that our society is in a state of moral collapse."
Shapiro's portrayal of LGBTQ+ people and relationships as inherently lewd or pornographic, and thus, inappropriate for children, has become the norm among many conservatives. Over the past three months, the biggest names in conservative media have resurrected an all-out war against LGBTQ+ Americans, attempting to trigger a moral panic that is growing more extreme and more widespread with each passing week. As state legislatures tee up hundreds of anti-LGBTQ+ proposals this year, a study from the Human Rights Campaign declared that 2022 could be the most anti-trans legislative year in history, per USA Today. This campaign has also escalated in conservative media; in March, far-right pundits began maligning educators who talk about gender identity or sexual orientation as "groomers" who seek to prey on schoolchildren. The revival of this age-old smear was adopted by some of the right's most popular pundits and politicians. But the focus of these attacks has since shifted from schools, evolving into much broader attacks on LGBTQ+ people in all public spaces.
In a Townhall column titled "When a Kiss Is Not Just a Kiss," talk radio host Larry O'Connor pushed back against a Perez Hilton tweet noting that Lightyear is "banned in multiple countries over a gay kiss. CARTOONS KISSING, Y'ALL. That's some commitment to homophobia."
"This is the standard response whenever objections are raised to the slow-motion degradation of our principles and values that we try to instill in our children," O'Connor wrote. "Now, Disney has decided to warp its credibility with parents everywhere by letting us know that even its cartoons are no longer free from content that might be objectionable." Likewise, The American Conservative's Rod Dreher condemned Disney's decision to include the Lightyear scene, accusing the company of appeasing a "woke mob that wants to sexualize children" and trying to "turn popular art into culture-war propaganda." (At one point, Disney higher-ups reportedly decided to remove the scene in which the lesbian couple shares a kiss, but they reversed that decision in March in response to employee protests over anti-LGBTQ+ legislation being passed in Florida.)
"It's great that it's back in the film," actor Chris Evans, who voices the character Buzz Lightyear, told Vanity Fair at last week's world premiere. "I think it's a shame that it's such a story. It should be more normalized, but I'm glad we are making those steps."
It's not just movies. In a direct rebuttal to Pride Month celebrations taking place across the country, conservatives have also denounced LGBTQ+ spaces as innately depraved and unfit for children. "It's OK to just say you don't want kids to go to drag shows because you don't want them to see men dressed up like women," wrote conservative commentator Allie Beth Stuckey in a tweet, adding that "men pretending to be women should [not] be celebrated, especially by children." Even Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene jumped in on the war against drag saying she was going to propose a bill making it illegal for children to be exposed to drag performances.
"Random drag queens in public spaces pose exactly 0 threat to children," Natalie Wynn, a popular trans YouTuber, remarked on this controversy in a tweet. "These people don't care about protecting children, they care about protecting 'childhood innocence'—ignorance romanticized; a bullshit fantasy made up by adults, reflecting every adult prejudice."
Wynn's comment caught conservative podcaster Matt Walsh's attention, who in response to Wynn wrote, "These people are monsters" who "actively want to corrupt your children." Walsh, who apparently began utilizing the "groomer" smear and pushing for laws to ban drag queen storytelling hours nearly a year before some of his peers joined him, went on to write, "This is why we must oppose them with every fiber of our being, no matter what." (Might be worth noting that Walsh, a Catholic, has shown far less concern and ire toward the largest grooming scandal in modern history. "The pedophile scandal in the Catholic Church is not a pedophile scandal. The vast majority of victims are post-pubescent teens and young men," he wrote in 2018. "The real problem in the Church that everyone sees and few will say out loud: gay priests.")
This campaign to seemingly ostracize LGBTQ+ people from society isn't just playing out between conservative pundits; there's a growing legal push to codify bans against talking about sexual orientation or gender identity in classrooms, limiting trans kids' abilities to participate in sports, and receive appropriate gender-affirming health care. Democrats have taken notice too; on Wednesday President Joe Biden signed an executive order to expand resources to LGBTQ+ Americans, from housing initiatives, to health care, as well as reducing the exposure of minors to conversion therapy.
In a statement to Vanity Fair, Amit Paley, the CEO of the Trevor Project, a LGBTQ+ youth advocacy organization, warned that the anti-trans narratives being propagated by conservatives could have dire consequences. "The resurgence of regressive anti-LGBTQ attacks that seek to smear adults—including parents, teachers, counselors, and doctors—who affirm and support LGBTQ youth is incredibly dangerous," said Paley, "and diverts attention away from the critical work being done to prevent and address actual child abuse and sexual assault perpetrated against LGBTQ youth."
Some LGBTQ+ Americans have already experienced new threats set off by the right's latest moral crusade. At an Idaho Pride event Saturday, 31 members of Patriot Front, a white nationalist group, were arrested for conspiracy to riot after they traveled to the event armed with shields, metal poles, and at least one smoke grenade. That same day, a group of Proud Boys stormed a California library's drag queen story hour and began hurling anti-trans and antigay slurs at attendees. Similarly, a band of reported "Christian fascists" harassed and threatened patrons of drag queen brunch in Dallas last week. During the incident, the group began directing "groomer" chants at the event's participants and guests.
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The latest faux moral outrage.
Indeed. Who really cares if someone, real or not, is gay or whatever? Why is something like thus still an issue in this day and age?
People are still being raised in cultures of bigotry.
True, which is really sad.
...and screaming at all who dare question or be different.
since when is a comatose young woman being cared for by 7 dwarf bachelors a traditional right wing value? oh wait, never mind...
Disney is open about using their movies to push a gay agenda on kids. It's not a secret.
Some parents don't want their kids exposed to sexualized propaganda before they even start school.
So it is ok for kids to see a straight couple kiss but showing a two second clip of two Moms kissing and it is sexualizing?
What bullshit.
Yes, when Disney admits they are intentionally inserting homosexual behavior because they want to promote homosexuality it's different.
By all means, if you can show me evidence of Disney executives demanding heterosexual sexual scenes be added to movies to promote that behavior then you have an argument.
Again, bullshit. Being inclusive and having the decision to add gay characters is not promoting people being gay or not.
It is a simple thing called inclusivity.
Something you all seem to be against just because of bigotry and hatred.
Why in the world would anyone demand heterosexual scenes when they are everywhere already. That is just an excuse.
[deleted]
The goalposts keep moving, Used to be bigotry was attacking or demeaning people for being gay. Then it became opposing gay marriage. Now you are a bigot if you don't think corporations should prioritize inserting homosexual scenes in movies for small kids. By next year you will be a bigot if you object to transvestite strip shows in schools.
removed for context
I am not the one that thinks gay people sexualize children.
Transvestite shows in schools? Have a lot of demons do you?
“Transvestite shows in schools?”
yep, here ya go. Btw, some of the kids are as young as 3.
Eh, the only thing I can say is I don't like it being paid for. If it was a non profit that did some things would be a different story.
“Eh, the only thing I can say is I don't like it being paid for.”
That’s all? Unbelievable.
So what. Drag queens can be funny. It is not sexual at all. Some people need to lighten up.
Straight couples kissing is normal and is as things should be.
I think it’s completely inappropriate, but what you or i think doesn’t matter. The only voices that matter are those of the parents and i’m guessing most are opposed.
I really didn't want to get into this right now, I was watching the challenge online and looking here at commercials.
I will just say, that is all that comment deserves.
Point of the seed being, where is all this new found moral outrage coming from? Right wing and evangelical republicans.
The shoe can be on the other foot as well. Don't want your kids to participate fine. Why say no kids can see these things.
Talk about traumatizing kids....Haha
Well, its not really 'new'. Right wing religious conservatives have been trying to force their morals on everyone around them for centuries. Lgtbq folk have been abused, harassed, discriminated against, beaten, murdered, refused lodging, fired and worse and more often than not the perpetrator believes themselves a righteous religious believer because hate for lgtbq persons has been beaten into them since before they could read.
Right wing religious conservatives are bigots, plain and simple.
Bigot: noun - a person who is obstinately or unreasonably attached to a belief, opinion, or faction, especially one who is prejudiced against or antagonistic toward a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular group.
So it shouldn't be surprising that they express their bitter bigoted hate of lgtbq persons and reject any attempt to portray them as 'normal'. It's not enough for them to simply ignore lgtbq persons and let them live their lives, they need to insert themselves into the conversation and express how bitterly they despise other humans simply because they love someone.
The supposed 'gay agenda' is simply a desire of lgtbq persons to live normally without being harassed and discriminated against, is that such a terrible 'agenda'? Is it so wrong to show them as the normal, functioning, emotional and sometimes flawed human beings they are? Apparently to right wing religious conservatives they only want gay persons to be depicted as scary, evil, dangerous villain's who are out stalking the streets trying to convert straight white conservative Christian children. So if anyone dares portray them as normal the right wing conservatives will scream to the high heavens and do their very best to cancel whatever and whoever dares reject their supposed moral authority.
They already approve of drag queens in grade school....for what purpose I can't imagine
If YOU can show that YOU have evidence of Disney executives demanding homosexual 'sexual' scenes be added to movies to promote that behavior then YOU have an argument.
I'll wait.
Allow me:
"Karey Burke, president of Disney’s General Entertainment Content, led the charge in a company-wide virtual call earlier this week that was posted to Twitter by journalist Christopher Rufo.
“I’m here as a mother of two queer children, actually, one transgender child and one pansexual child,” Burke said on the call that was part of Disney’s “Reimagine Tomorrow” campaign."
How did they get woke executives at Disney?
Probably via scum woke stockholders.
Just to be clear, are you defining a kiss as a “sexual scene?”
But yeah, literally every Disney animated movie has some kind of heterosexual romance in it. And while I don’t get included on Disney’s executive memos, I am confident that such content is a priority for Disney executives because they know it sells and they have been making movies like that for like 85 years.
I'd be more than willing to do so.
Alas, as is your MO, your link doesn't address the subject of my comment.
What is your definition of 'woke' and why are you so averse to it?
Are you claiming that all 850 thousand + stockholders are scum Vic?
The greater the number the larger the conspiracy! /s
It is all a secret plot doncha know. A plot to have people grooming children to make them all gay.
It doesn't seem to be working very well though.
What's so fucking ridiculous about this is, if being exposed to a sexual orientation causes a child to 'choose' that orientation, HOW do they explain the fact that there have been a consistant percentage of gay people throughout our history?
There is a fuck load of gay people in their 60's+. Not a lot of exposure in the 50s and 60s so I wonder where they came from?
I guess those 7 dwarfs all living together in the woods is the closest they got to indoctrination. /s
Were did you get our gay stats from 150 years ago?
One of the groups I rode tour bicycles with in Bucks County PA
always ended in a bar for a few beers.
One day we ended up in New Hope on a Sunday morning
and I was surprised to hear how many of these guys were "out",
married with children and were patiently waiting to be empty nesters so they
could divorce their wives and move on with their other partner.
I actually bought a home from two of them.
Not sure if statistics mean anything.
Gay men are mentioned in the history of the Chinese, Egyptians,
Romans, Greeks and complained about as far back as 5,000 years ago in the
Bibles.
They seem to have always been a part of our story.
Only if someone wants to substantiate the statement: “HOW do they explain the fact that there have been a consistant percentage of gay people throughout our history?”
My family had a wonderful vacation in Bucks County around 16 years ago.
The problem for demographers has always been that getting truthful answers regarding taboo subjects like sex is and always has been extremely difficult. Thus this study...
Masters and Johnson in their seminal study on human sexuality described sexual orientation as being along a spectrum from completely straight to 100% gay. Their thesis was that sexuality was not as set in stone as people believed. Getting the truth is difficult.
Yes, hence my comment to Dulay.
Consistent is arguable.
But there is always a percentage.
They simply cannot put a number on it.
Washington's Crossing?
One thing I have always wondered about being gay being as a choice is, when did anyone ever choose? Can anyone actually point to the moment when they decided "I wanna fuck that!"
Gender and Male Same-Sex Erotic Behavior in British North America in the Seventeenth Century on JSTOR
Male-Male Intimacy in Early America: Beyond Romantic Friendships - Kindle edition by Benemann, William E. Literature & Fiction Kindle eBooks @ Amazon.com.
Especially in recent times when most of the taboo of being openly gay has been eliminated.
Yet statistically, the percentage has been growing since data is now being recorded and more people are being open about it.
As we rely on self-identification, we never will.
My question is why they insist that homosexuality is a choice while also insisting that heterosexuality is not.
I don’t doubt that there has been homosexuality as long as there have been humans. I just doubted that “there have been a consistant percentage of gay people throughout our history?” I don’t believe that is knowable.
Yes, I agree which is why Dulay’s statement is unknowable.
Haloween party, Columbus, Ohio, 1987 when I saw my future wife for the first time. She was in a devil costume.
Yes, but my daughter enjoyed Sesame Place more.
You never put on girl's clothes and put make-up on when you were a kid?
I didn't have any sisters, so no.
My daughter used to dress her little brother up in her Disney costumes and put play make-up on his face. It was funny because he was so good natured about it
When I was a teenager we were all sitting around bored. I let the girls put makeup on me. I kinda had ulterior motives as I liked them all fawning over me....
I will say, I found out I would be an ugly woman....
How does merely being LGBTQ equate to a "sexual" scene?
That link has already been posted and I'll say it again, it does NOT address my comment. Try to keep up.
You won't get any more of an answer from MM than you did from Sean.
When I was young I could have popped a boner looking at a hole in a watermelon.
OMG! I used to work in an office building overlooking that "attraction".
BUT THE AGENDA is A CONSPIRACY /s
Kids smiling faces must have been a nice daily sight.
In season the traffic and parking were (are) a local thing to avoid.
Always enjoyed the difference between the energy level at 10AM
versus dinner time when both the parents and kids were wiped out.
And the strollers were a thing to behold, lol.
Lol okay, what is this gay agenda? What the fuck does that even mean? And do you seriously think kids have never seen anyone kissing before they start kindergarten? Especially these days with the internet?
Its a kiss, not a big deal. Seems that the only reason people are trying to make it a big deal is because of who specifically is doing the kissing. I am sure if it was a heterosexual kiss you wouldn't be hearing a peep about it. But as usual adults are ruining things by trying to make it all about them and their own biases/hatreds. Its a fucking cartoon.
No, they only kiss in it.
Still no answer from Sean. Maybe he got distracted researching the Gay Agenda.
... that or he developed a painful blister.
Or weenier calluses. [Who knew those were a thing?]
Should have used Aloe Cadabra Natural Personal Lube is she couldn't self lube.
they're probably a lo↑ more common ↑han you would expec↑...
Parents have been deciding what is and is not appropriate for their children to see in a movie theater for years. As I recall that included nudity, swearing, violence and a few others I am sure I am forgetting. And it might have even been a different age for each item. I seem to recall the boob scene in titanic being a topic of discussion when my kids were young. I guess that may include a lesbian hug for some people going forward. I have a hard time equating that to a push to erase anyone. Kids will learn about things at the pace parent deem appropriate.
Not everything in this life in this day and age can be regulated. Trying to shield children from realities is a no more better approach that a free for all.
Also, not every parent can pick and choose what their children do and don't learn.
Eventually the kids will learn about most things either from their parents or quite possibly from other kids. The birds and the bees comes to mind. But parents can control what movies their young children can and can not see at the movies to a large degree and that is their decision. Parents should have some input as to what is age appropriate and when.
And they do and we have standards.
We are talking about an international movie. Do you really care that one of the characters was gay? Do you really think it is only kids that watch these movies...
The only reason people complain about it is they have some weird notion that if their children see someone gay, it will make them that way. Like they have some magic wand they are going to wave over the kids and turn them all...
Personally I don't care if one of the characters is gay.
I don't care what is in the movie, that is not my decision to make or judge.
I also don't care if some parents don't want their kids to see the movie, for whatever reason they have. They are still the parents. I don't always agree with some of the decisions made about my 3year old grandson but I respect the fact that I am not his parent.
And maybe someday when the kids better understand the world around them they will have their own kids and try to decide when their kids should learn things.
Being gay is not a leaned behavior.
Didn't say it was.
How sad that 50s-type prejudice is back in vogue. The old slurs have returned and are now shouted out loud with enthusiasm. i.e., Homosexuals are promiscuous and/or child molesters. It's disgusting. And if you engage in this shit, you should be ashamed of yourself.
So fucking what? A hug? You're wetting your diapers over a hug???
There's your headline: "Hugs are inappropriate for children"
Oh it's a kiss now. My bad. That's entirely different. Clearly, this movie should be rated R. Imagine . . . kissing in a Disney movie. Disgusting!
Wasn't there a big commotion about sleeping beauty because he kissed her without her giving her consent?
Yeah. Cuz it would be more humane to let her sleep forever.
It's what happens next that determines whether it's really assault, he might just be trying to give her mouth to mouth resuscitation. Does she wake up and push him away as most people randomly being woken up by a stranger would? And if so, does Prince Charming listen and back away or does he demand her lips and body as payment because he just cut his way through a magical thorny thicket and killed a dragon to 'save' her? If she tells him that she's just not in to him and that she likes girls instead, does he wish her well and tell her he just wanted to rescue her as a human being? Or does he rant and rage about how she must be some thankless godless bitch who should be physically appreciative of such a manly stud like him for even giving her the time of day?
I haven't seen the movie in years but since this is an old Disney movie my guess would be she kissed him back and they lived happily ever after. If that is the case it doesn't explain all the recent outrage.
The thing with Sleeping Beauty is - at least in this particular movie - they know each other. Before Maleficent puts her to sleep, Aurora (the Sleeping Beauty) and Prince Philip meet in the forest and fall in love. And I mean they are ridiculously, hopelessly in love with each other.
You have to literally have never watched the movie to think she would not give consent to being kissed by him.
I had forgotten that. Hard to believe it since I probably watched it a couple hundred times with my two daughters. Of course that was more than 25 years ago and my memory is not what it once was.
The "problem" has been around "forever"
You've got to be taught to hate and fear
You've got to be taught from year to year
It's got to be drummed in your dear little ear
You've got to be carefully taught
You've got to be taught to be afraid
Of people whose eyes are oddly made
And people whose skin is a diff'rent shade
You've got to be carefully taught
Ultimately racism and conformity will persist because of tribalism,
in spite of any efforts by Disney or Sesame Street.
But the outrage, real or not, will continue by the closed minds.
Interestingly, what Rogers & Hammerstein, Disney and most other rational entertainment/movie/TV producers have been doing is attempting to do the opposite of teaching hate and racism. They are teaching inclusion and tolerance, but that is being met with anger and outrage by those who have been busy teaching hate and discrimination.
Disney puts a few seconds of tolerance and acceptance, treating a gay couple as normal and showing they can be loving parents too, and for that they get attacked by right wing bigots because it's counter to their narrative of "you can only be good, successful and happy if you live the way we tell you to live." According to right wing religious conservatives, anyone saying you can be good, successful and happy without bowing to their God and metaphorically flagellating yourself with their cat o' nine tails moral code is an enemy that needs to be eliminated.
When I left my church and faith just over 25 years ago I was told that getting divorced, moving to CA and living the way I wanted to live, studying other faiths, accepting science and evolution, befriending gay persons and those of other faiths, all of that was going to lead me to strife, heartache, depression, disappointment, failure and utter sorrow. 25 years later most of my family refuses to talk to me because I'm happier than I've ever been, have two beautiful daughters, love my life and continue to thrive without them or their faith and it infuriates them. It stings even more because many of them are fucking miserable, depressed, disappointed failures that bitterly resent my freedom and happiness.
The thing that many so-called 'people of faith' hate more than anything is when others prove by their actions how utterly useless and corrupt the supposed 'moral superiority' from the 'people of faith' is.
So hopefully Disney and others continue to teach to love and not fear, teach their viewers year after year, to accept those who are differently made, and embrace those of every shade.
It started in public kindergarten with "don't talk to the brown kids"
It continued in Grade school with don't hang around with those Germans
or those Italians and no you will not date that Italian Catholic girl.
No you cannot hang out with that kid from kindergarten because he is
Protestant.
No they are our neighbors and like family.
For HS I had to take the public bus, "don't talk to the brown people"
In HS it was don't talk to the Judge's son, he's black or McQueen, he's queer.
After many decades of contradictions, my parents softened after realizing that
in our huge extended family we have
an autistic savant cousin we used to call retarded...
A cousin who was obviously gay at birth, cousins who converted to Judaism
or Islam to marry. Cousins and stepdaughters that married American Asians
and Americans of black decent.
Imagine my surprise at a new apartment finding out my upstairs neighbor
was actually a cousin from the Jewish side of the family
classmates of Yanni Netanyahu, people my parents had never discussed with us.
I salute Disney, Sesame Street, Wylie Coyote, the crows and any other
characters that silently told us to make up our own minds.
As one of those 'brown people' I have another perspective.
Our landlords were German Jews who survived the holocaust. Our neighbors were Poles who spoke little English but whose kids were 'Americanized'. Their youngest daughter was a constant playmate of my sister and me. Our family, being of mixed race, I took after the 'dark side', my sister the 'light'. Our neighbor friend, Mary, was a beautiful toe headed Catholic girl and we were 'like peas and carrots'. WE had no fucking clue what the problem was with the 'adults' and WE didn't care. There were forts to build and holes to dig and snowball fights to plan.
Being from Chicago, we were integrated early on. That didn't stop kids from segregating themselves, just like their parents wanted them to be. It was obvious in the lunchroom and on the playground.
We 'POC' made up our own little 'gangs' for self-preservation. It was like 'West Side Story' on steroids in grade school.
In a high school with about 2,000 students and forced bussing, there was some heated shit that went down. Our 'social media' of choice at the time was the newspaper 'Rising up angry', whose motto was 'To love, we must fight'.
At the same time, we really were trying to learn how to live together. One of my best friends back then was a very smart black dude who was a Captain of the ROTC. Man did we have some great debates. I went to every one of his Corps parade dates. He took a LOT of shit being friends with 'Hippies'. I took shit for being friends with a 'ROTCY'.
My mother is a Roman Catholic, my father a Lutheran. They were both too busy fucking up their own lives to have the time to 'indoctrinate' my sister and I into a religion. THANK DOG!.
My mother actualy encouraged us to explore other religious and cultures. I went to many different religious gatherings before coming to the conclusion that they are all hypocrites. My father didn't give a fuck one way or another.
As do I. I guess my point was that when any 'others', aka the 'brown kids, gays, Muslims, Jews, atheists etc.', are depicted as 'normal' or happy there is often push back from some group, usually right wing conservative protestants here in the US, because their ideal, their 'normal' is often only defined as "white conservative Christian protestant". And anyone depicting any 'others' as normal is an affront to their ideal and ideology that says worshiping and living as they do is the best way to live. Anything else should be depicted as 'abnormal' and if it's not, then they see it as an attack on their faith and ideology that says their way is the best way.
It's like if you believe stealing is morally wrong, if you see someone steal something and they aren't punished, the thief isn't depicted in a negative way, then there is a sense of injustice, a sense that their sticking to morals and not stealing is worthless because others are stealing with impunity and are even prospering, then they likely will get bitter and angry about it.
In many conservative Christian protestants minds being an atheist or being gay is as bad if not worse than stealing. A majority of Christian believers view atheists as bad as rapists. So if they see an atheist or a gay person depicted without some negative consequence, or God forbid, being successful and happy, then there is often a sense of bitter outrage from some conservative Christian believers, not unlike that of the faithful brother who had stayed home and taken care of his father while the prodigal son went out and wasted his inheritance.
"28 “The older brother became angry and refused to go in. So his father went out and pleaded with him. 29 But he answered his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. 30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!’" - Luke 15:28-30
I spent just over 30 years as a conservative evangelical Christian and one question was frequently asked, "why do bad things happen to good people, and, conversely, why do good things happen to bad people". It wasn't until I got some distance before I saw that conservative Christians category of "bad" included some amazing and wonderful people who deserved all the blessings they received. And their category of "good" included some of the most bitter hateful bigots one could ever imagine.
years ago I opened pandora's box on my mom's side of the family when my cousin and I were both presented a hatchet job of the family genealogy, done online by my grandfather on his computer and printer. all three of us were sitting there when I made the joke to my cousin that we could forget about joining any aryan nation groups with some of the last names I was reading in the binder. gramps didn't think that joke was very funny. a few days later, family meeting, and my grandfather spills the beans about all the eastern europeans in the family tree. bfd.
my granny on the other hand, was as close to english royalty as we'll ever get, until somebody married an NA in new england at the beginning of the 19th century. 222+ years later, and he's the poor corpse we still point at when asked about any native heritage in the past. it's a wasp thing.
on my dad's side it was common knowledge that most of the family had been chased out of the deep south for some form of interrelationship or another. it's still being blamed on some acquired italian lineage over a century earlier, even though DNA proves otherwise. I told my kids if ever asked that we're scotch/irish, since now our surnames get as close to our complexions as we'll ever get. I'm proud to be an american mutt, because it grants me license to mock everyone else, except those mostly from muslim, hindu, and buddist regions, so far...
What I can figure, I am mostly German with a little Irish thrown in.
I have never done the genealogy thing though.
LOL, the wannabe syndrome.
My great grandmother once said that her great great grandmother married a French/Cree fur trapper. You could have heard a pin drop in the room. That would make us 1/1964th, OMG white and French the Cree part was fine.
Mishomis (grandfather) looked askew at Nookomis (grandmother) and asked is that why you talk with the nasal sound. Nookomis replied, ''take the stuffing out of your ears'' and the nasal sound will disappear.
When the Canadian government decided that Michif/Cree were indigenous things calmed down. The 1/1964 was forgotten.
Needless to say, it was never mentioned again.
there's a few people in my family that now wished they hadn't done the DNA thingy...
they're probably the crowd that chased granny's extended family across the st lawrence river into ny/penn.
I did the genealogy thing and it almost made my uncle cry.
My maternal Grandmother was a big henna enhanced 'redhead' who claimed to be Irish, was a heavy drinker, so of course, we were proud to be Irish, though most of us don't look it. Yet when I went through the genealogy thing, I found out that we had NO Irish ancestors. NONE. We're actually English and Filippino [add German to me]. Since I didn't pony up for the international data, I couldn't dig too deep into the Filippino side but we go WAY back in the US and then England.
So, on my monthly 'How the fuck are y'all doin'' call to NY, I told my cousin who then told his dad [mom's baby brother]. He called me kinda freaked out. He wanted to see it for himself and I ended up having to walk him through how to log onto my family tree with all of the documentation attached. My poor uncle was indignant. He really took it personally. He still mentions it every time we talk.
There is no reason to be upset by biology and geography, they just are.
Ha. Little do we know....I would be a little upset too. Always thought you were one thing.
I know the German in me as my Great-grandmother came straight from there through to NYC.
I guess I am a little diluted yet that and my Grandfather being Iris is all I know.
It would be interesting to check it out though.
I did my DNA thingy and the answer came back, ''You're from here''...
Disappointing since it's said that we came from Siberia so at least they could have said I was related to someone in the ''Altan Ordu'' like Batu Khan or even Genghis Khan.
After my mother died of cancer when she was 25 and two years ago, I was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer, I had a genetic test to determine if I had genes that may pass increased cancer risk to my daughter. Fortunately, the results were negative. That was much more satisfying than knowing the geography of my ancestors.
I'm sorry to hear that.
I'm glad your daughter is OK.
Thoughts... (butt no prayers - I'm a fucking atheist).
I think he thought I had taken away his 'bad ass beer drinker' card.
That's cold.
No problem, I'm a fucking agnostic.
LoL, you're probably right.
OMG! That's hilarious!
I did mine a few years ago and was not surprised that there was no NA in my DNA. I am white, white, white. Mr G always called me a Heinz 57 but he's the one with all the unique stuff in his DNA. His brothers were none too happy to hear that some of their ancestors came from Africa...hehehe...what did they expect when they are Spaniards? Did they not know of the Moors in Spain?
info like that could be a death sentence in arkansas. is there enough space in your front yard for a cross burning?
Me too.
So some people have nothing better to do than read waaaaaaay too much into a cartoon?
For your entertainment sinful as it is. /s
Thanks Kavika, to be so much younger again...
I helped a friend put her old couch on the curb. She lived next door to a Methodist Church. Then I went down the street to my brother-in-law's house and grabbed the two huge Barbie Dolls (they were at least 3ft tall) that he was throwing away (because his daughter was in college). Naturally, the dolls were naked. I put the dolls on the couch in the "69 position next to the "free couch" sign. The couch and the dolls were gone about four hours later.
Was I promoting doll homosexuality?
Not really, I just thought it was funny.
... and you didn't take a picture of it to post here??? wtf?
My bad.
you could've at least added a stolen carpet cleaning handbill/sign to that street art...
shame shame shame
My favorite transvestite...