This is being discussed in the comments on my post on Tony Dungy – but it bears pulling up to it’s own entry – at the Indiana Family Institute Dinner, the Colts sent merchandise to be donated off in an auction, which raised $20,000 for the organization to oppose gay rights and to support SJR-7.
Seats for the event at the Ritz Charles, one of the institute’s largest annual fundraisers, went for $75 apiece. In addition to the more than $50,000 raised from ticket sales, the institute auctioned off enough Dungy-signed Colts footballs, helmets and paraphernalia to raise nearly another $20,000.
In keeping with the Colts theme, Dungy was introduced by Colts punter Hunter Smith, whose Christian band Connersvine served as the evening’s entertainment.
While it’s not a public press release of their support for the anti-gay group, it is an endorsement directly from the Colts home office of the marriage discrimination amendment, and is profoundly disappointing.
UPDATE: Looks like they did indeed pull the site, at least as far as I can see. The URL now goes to the main snickers site instead.
UPDATE: Americablog goes into the story in more depth, including pointing out that two of the “alternate endings” of the video result in violence – one with one guy hitting another with an wrench, and and the other with one guy slamming the other under a car hood. Disturbing.
The offensive reactions that the football players have to the commercial are in the small thumbnails at the bottom of the afterthekiss.com page, and now that I see them, I’m pretty pissed at their reactions. Assholes.
AfterElton.com covers the whole issue in two recent posts on their blog: One discussing the commercial [Funny? Stupid? Homophobic?] where two guys “accidentally” kiss while jointly eating a Snickers candy bar:
Then I noticed that the end of the commercial directs you to go to Afterthekiss.com. Curious, I head over there and it turns out there are four versions of the commercial you can vote for and the winner is going to be run during the Daytona 500. One is the ad from the Super Bowl and two others are basically the same version of that. In one, the guys drink motor oil to prove they’re manly. In the other, they whack each other with a wrench and the hood of the car. I guess it’s aimed at the Jackass crowd.
But the fourth, called The Love Boat, involves a third man with long, white hair who strolls up, flips his hair likes a woman and asks if there is room for a third on this Love Boat. WTF? Okay, it doesn’t even make sense, but presumably this guy must be gay if he wants to get in on some same-sex macking with two other guys.
Frankly, the whole thing seems to stupid to be offended by, but what the heck was Mars, Inc. thinking even doing such a dumb commercial. You’d think in this day and age, they’d be going out of their way not to risk offending the LGBT community with the idea that kissing another guy isn’t manly and whatever is going on in the Love Boat spot.
And this post announcing the website was just yanked off the air, possibly because of the public homophobic reaction of Bears players to the commercial:
Mars Inc. just shut down the whole website they built to promote their Super Bowl ad showing two men kissing. Perhaps it’s because of pictures like this?
Homophobic Bears Player Mushin
This is Mushin Muhammad, Bears Wide receiver and this is the face he made upon seeing the two men kiss in the ad. Some of Muhammad’s choicer comment? “Is he eyeing him the whole time? Oh, my God?”
What the heck was Snickers thinking with this? I’ve already contacted Mars, Inc and have been promised a statement shortly. Still waiting to hear back from the NFL as well.
However, I was able to go to the site and see the different ads, so it still seems to be up.
Make no mistake about what their goals really are – in the same way the the Irish Republican army has a legal, public face in Sein Finn, and the “European-American Unity and Rights Organization” is a modern-day face to the KKK, the Indiana Family Institute is an “appears to be innocuous” religious front for people whose real political goal is to see me put in jail or driven out of the state. Among other things, they are promoting SJR-7, as well as opposing a hate crimes bill and anti-discrimination laws. But their agenda is far deeper than that, and these are no garden-variety Christians.
Man, I already have an email about this – IFI says they’re religious, but what they’re pursuing is political – they lobby the statehouse and pursue legislation (publically. Privately, they pursue more radical stuff) – so this isn’t Tony Dungy expressing his religious beliefs. This it Tony Dungy fund-raising for a political goal – and a hate agenda.
“An opportunity to financially support the Indiana Family Institute will be presented.” Great. I’m posting the invitation from their site, but editing out the contact information. I’m also linking to a report about the site, rather than the site itself. I don’t want to be responsible for driving any traffic their way.
That really puts damper on my excitement for the Colts and the Super Bowl. I had no idea that Tony Dungy hated me. I’m hardly going to be cheering for him now. It happens every time – you get all excited about being a part of something cool, and somebody comes along to remind you – “hey, you’re not really one of us. You don’t belong.” Even though I’ve been out for over 20 years now, it still stings, every time.
