Issues@Hand
AFA initiatives, Christian activism, news briefs
November-December 1997 – In a bizarre case of putting their pro-homosexual ideology before profits, The Walt Disney Co. poured money into a benefit for a homosexual lobby group held at the Los Angeles premiere of a movie produced by Paramount Studios.
The September fund-raiser benefited the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), and took place on the Paramount Studio lot following the screening of the gay-themed comedy In & Out. Disney had several of its own films on the market at the time Paramount’s In & Out premiered.
NGLTF describes itself as “the front line activist organization in the national gay and lesbian movement.” At its website, NGLTF says its agenda includes “battling Radical Right anti-gay legislative and ballot initiatives,” “working to repeal sodomy laws,” and fighting “for the freedom to marry.” It encourages homosexuals to put their “queer shoulder[s] to the wheel.”
Disney was willing to put its own shoulder to the NGLTF wheel. The gay activists said Disney had thrown “major financial support behind the efforts” of its work, calling Disney’s contributions through the premiere benefit “significant.”
“This is another blatant example of Disney’s full-fledged support of the homosexual social agenda,” said Tim Wildmon, American Family Association vice president. “It’s amazing that Disney is giving money for a fund-raising party celebrating the release of a competitor’s movie. It clearly reveals Disney’s zeal to promote the normalization of homosexuality in our society.”
Movie features landmark same-sex kiss
In & Out is about a teacher (Kevin Kline) who is inadvertently “outed” by a former student at the Academy Awards. Kline’s character, who was about to marry his girlfriend, vehemently denies being a homosexual; but he finally surrenders to his true sexual orientation after being kissed by a gay reporter (Tom Selleck). Movie reviewer Robert Hofler said that embrace, portrayed in comedic terms, is “the longest gay kiss in a major studio release, ever.” USA Today called the movie “groundbreaking.”
Even Chastity Bono, entertainment media director for the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, was surprised that Paramount allowed the graphic kiss. “I couldn’t believe they didn’t cut away,” she said. “I was kind of blown away by the length of it….”
For public relations purposes the movie was compared to heterosexual romances. Paul Rudnick, the screenwriter for In & Out and himself a homosexual, likens the movie to “one of those great screwball comedies, only with Cary Grant and Randolph Scott.”
Kline saw the same similarity, even in the controversial kiss. “It’s the kind of movie kiss that has a long history from screwball and romantic comedies where the guy grabs the woman and just plants one on her and she is forever changed. It just happens to be two guys this time,” he said.
Perhaps to head off criticism from pro-family groups, Selleck insisted that the movie is merely a comedy “without a political agenda.” But Kline admitted that In & Out has a strong message: “It’s about tolerance and understanding and about overcoming prejudices born of ignorance,” Kline told the homosexual magazine The Advocate. “However much this movie is a fairy tale – pardon the expression – it also makes you think, wouldn’t it be nice if something like this could happen?”
Industry observers recognized that Paramount was taking a financial gamble with the movie. Clifford Rothman said in USA Today, “Paramount is walking a corporate tightrope, wanting to woo the large gay movie-going audience while not offending a mass audience that might be turned off by the prospect of gay romance.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, the cost of producing, marketing and distributing In & Out required domestic box office revenues over $80 million for the studio to break even. While In & Out had an impressive first weekend, by the third week of its release the film had claimed just over $40 million. 
