In the spirit of the Academy Awards, we would like to present the front runner for the most homophobic state in the union award: Florida.
A new bill being considered in the Florida house would make movie and TV productions with gay characters ineligible for a tax credit that is usually used to lure Tinsel Town to the state. Current state law gives tax credits on productions that are "family friendly," i.e. no smoking, sex, nudity, or profane language.
In its newest form, the tax credit would increase, but the field of disqualified productions would expand, including any production that included gay characters.
It's pretty much impossible to find a movie or TV show without at least one gay character or drug abuser or drunk, all of which would be classified as "nontraditional" under the bill.
So basically, the state wants to only back documentaries about Mickey Mouse or picking oranges.
The specific wording is a production that includes any "exhibit or implied act" of nontraditional family values and gratuitous violence.
The bill was proposed by Orlando Republican Stephen Precourt, who claims he's not targeting the gay community, but said he doesn't want to invest public dollars in shows with gay characters.
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Beyond the financial fallacy of excluding critically-acclaimed films and hit TV shows that include homosexual characters such as Oscar winner "Brokeback Mountain," ABC's Modern Family, NBC's The Office or Jersey Shore, the bill threatens to take TV and cinema in Florida back about 50 years.
"Think of it as like Mayberry,” Precourt said. “That’s when I grew up — the ’60s. That’s what life was like. I want Florida to be known for making those kinds of movies: Disney movies for kids and all that stuff. Like it used to be, you know?”
No, we don't.
