I Wish I Knew How to Give a Shit

ABC News — The annual White House Easter Egg Roll has been an oasis of innocence in a city of partisan venom for nearly 130 years, dating back to the presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes.

But the decision by gay and lesbian couples to bring their children to the event in Washington Monday is injecting conflict into this year's festivities. Some Christian Conservatives are not happy.

In an age when Spongebob Squarepants, Buster the Rabbit and "Tinky Winky" the Teletubby have all been caught in the cultural crossfire, perhaps it was inevitable that the Easter bunny would be next. Two hundred gay and lesbian families say they'll be attending.

'Meet Our Families'

Colleen Gillespie and Alisa Surkis waited in line for hours to pick up their tickets. ABC News caught up with them and their 3-year-old daughter Ella at their home in New York City before they left for Washington. "I think that for us it's really a simple thing," Surkis said, "that we just wanted our fellow citizens a chance to meet our families." Ella said she's really looking forward to one thing in particular: "Candy." Gillespie and Surkis said conservatives have politicized families like theirs by demonizing them.

'Tacky and Tasteless'

The Bush administration, which has endorsed a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, has said that all families are welcome at the Easter Egg Roll.

But some conservatives say what these families are doing is pushing a pro-gay marriage agenda — politicizing an event designed for children. "It just seems … tacky and tasteless," said Mark Tooley of the Institute on Religion and Democracy, "to take an event that should belong to them and turn it instead into an event for adults to use to make a political statement."

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First off, I opted for a different title than the über queer (not to mention über tired) Brokeback Bunny? reference that ABC opted to use. Apparently this whole "scandal" was given the aforementioned code name (after all, it's not officially scandalous until it has a code name!). I haven't even seen the movie yet and I'm already tired of it. Who knows, maybe when I do see it I'll love it so much that I'll prefix anything referencing gay topics with the word "Brokeback."

Secondly, I am soooo tired of every little thing being attributed to some kind of political stance/statement. Is it ever going to end? I can completely understand why people (like myself) are so jaded these days.

I'm not going to go into some long-winded rhetoric over the whole news story. Suffice to say the whole "family values" schtick is old. Fuck, it was old back when Bush senior's sidekick, Quayle coined the phrase in 1989. I think most people can see the forest for the trees and realize that the Right Winger's whole anti-gay propaganda is nothing more than a smokescreen for the real issues at hand. And even though I happen to be gay, I'm much more concerned with things going on here in the real world like escalating gas prices (AKA price gouging), the economy and the future of social security, healthcare, etc. I could give a fuck if some gay parents attend some overrated PR bullshit at The White House.

Oh, and as far as Mark Tooley's outrage over what he perceives as tainting a children's event in order to make a "political statement," I have one thing to say: Yeah, wouldn't that be tragic? It'd be like someone coming up with a plan like, oh let's say the No Child Left Behind Act in order to pander to potential voters in order to get re-elected, then failing to follow through with the promises made therein after being re-elected. Now that's tacky.

* P.s. Did anyune even see any news footage of this year's Easter Egg Roll? I didn't. Just curious.