General Mills caves to anti-gay group, pulls ads from Pretty Little Liars

The Florida Family Association is one of those groups whose purpose can be entirely divined from the words “family association”. They’re the kind of folks who literally hire airplanes to fly around Disney World and warn about gay people. (Yes, this actually happened.) So it comes as no surprise that they would take issue with the ABC Family show Pretty Little Liars. I don’t know anything about this show, but apparently some of the characters are lesbians. And as the Florida Family Association points out, sometimes they kiss each other! And children might see this! How terrible!

According to the FFA:

ABC using salacious and glamorizing scenes portraying young, pretty women as lesbians sends the wrong message to these young girls, a message that reinforces and legitimizes this homosexual lifestyle in a manner that could affect these young girls’ sexual identity for a lifetime.

What, are they afraid people are going to find out that being a lesbian is just that awesome? In response to this outrageous display of lesbians kissing just like straight people do all the time, the FFA has been urging businesses to remove their ads from the program. This week, a representative from General Mills replied to say that they will no longer be sponsoring the show. In other words, they don’t want to be associated with a show that treats lesbians like people.

This is explicitly an attempt to suppress something so basic as gay and lesbian visibility. It’s a denial of the reality that lesbians exist and have relationships just like anyone else. And it only serves to affirm that television, and by extension, romance itself is a sacred hetero-only zone. Not everyone is straight, you know. But apparently General Mills would rather not recognize that. So if you’d like to let them know what you think about their concessions to homophobia, you can email their consumer services director. And until they reinstate their ads, here’s a list of General Mills brands that we really have no reason to buy anymore.

{advertisement}