LGBT protest..'Avatar?'

I had intended to spend this time of my life writing a review for James Cameron’s “Avatar,” but there is a bit of news involving a protect surrounding the film that I feel needs to be addressed.  But instead of listening to me talk about it, let’s let the folks over at the Stop Avatar Movie blog:

On Friday, December 18, 2009 thousands of people will be protesting the release of the James Cameron movie, Avatar. The purpose of the protest is as follows:

    1) To make all people aware that  heterosexual arrogance, assumptions or exclusions of alternative sexualities in movies is no longer acceptable. Diversity and tolerance are human rights.

2) To speak out for all gay, bi-sexual, genderless and transgender people who are not represented by any character in Avatar.

    3) To educate people about Evolution and humanity’s transition to transgenderism. 

All protests will be peaceful and non-confrontational. Suggested methods of protest:

        * Stand outside of theaters with signs and pamphlets to express your views

        * Sit down in theater lobbies and do not move unless the police use force or violence upon you

        * Stand up during a viewing of Avatar and remain standing

        * Buy tickets to Avatar in bulk but do not attend showings. An empty theater sends a message

        * Bring your mate to the theater and show affection to each other.

   Reminder: SILENCE = DEATH. We will be silent no more.

Really?  Out of all the issues you people decide to protest it’s a movie.  And you’re not protesting it because it stars gays and lesbians in a bad light (A.K.A.: “I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry”), no, you’re protesting it because it DOESN’T have any gay characters in it!  Well it also doesn’t have any major black, Asian, or Israel characters either but that shouldn’t matter.  Let’s take a look at the protest methods first.

* Stand outside of theaters with signs and pamphlets to express your views

If you must protest this movie (and again, there is no reason to) then this is your best bet.  This is generally only seen as a minor annoyance and is easily annoyed.

* Sit down in theater lobbies and do not move unless the police use force or violence upon you.

This falls under the category of “disrupting traffic.”  People bought tickets to see a movie.  Now you are preventing them from getting their money’s worth.  In fact, depending on the crowd you may be preventing families from taking their kids to see “The Princess and the Frog” as well.  Trust me, when you do this police WILL show up!  They won’t use violence on you though; they’ll just arrest you for disrupting traffic.

* Stand up during a viewing of Avatar and remain standing.

This is also not a good idea.  You’ll have popcorn, soda, and maybe even some fists thrown at you.  The manager will ask you to leave.  When he does you better do so, or else the police will be called and you will be arrested.  The movie is three hours long, so trust me, they’ll have time to do this.

* Buy tickets to Avatar in bulk but do not attend showings. An empty theater sends a message.

Why not just send James Cameron money instead?  Theater owners and companies don’t care what you do with the ticket AFTER you bought it, they only care that you bought it!  This would actually work AGAINST your so-called “cause!”

* Bring your mate to the theater and show affection to each other.

This is not protesting.  This is just rude.  It’s rude when two heterosexual teenagers do this, and you can bet it will be just as rude when two gay men/women do this.  Again, you’ll be asked to stop by another theater goer, and if you don’t you’ll likely start a fight.  In addition to the fact that the protest methods suggested are largely ineffective I have to ask again: Why?  Just to let you know, I’m a Christian.  Now I don’t bring this up because I want to make a statement about the homosexual lifestyle.  Frankly while I disagree with many aspects of the style I have several gays friends who I get along with just fine.

No, I bring this up because as a Christian I don’t see myself in the movies too much.  When I do it’s usually a character who is so cynical and secretly evil, that I don’t consider them Christian at all.  But I’m not going to go and protest every movie that doesn’t feature a Christian character.  If I did and Hollywood one day decided to include a Christian character in every one of their films, not only would they have to think up of new stupid reasons that character is there, but so many of the portrayals would likely be so off that I’d end up protesting how the characters acted next.  This goes with black people, Asians, Latinos, Mormons, goth kids, and yes, gays and lesbians.

And gay people have a lot to be thankful for.  They used to be caricatures who were there to support the main hero’s and usually to either be evil or silly.  Now they are flesh and blood people.  Movies like “Philadelphia,” “Brokeback Mountain,” “The Torch Song Trilogy,” “Capote,” and especially “Milk” show that gay characters are not only real humans in movies now, they are also heros in many cases.  Not to mention there are many other movies in the theaters that don’t have gay characters, some of them big blockbusters, and I don’t see their doors being picked.  If there are no gay characters in James Cameron’s “Avatar” then it’s simply because having a gay character was not important enough to the story to warrant writing any in.