Homophobia in 2024? Groundbreaking.
On Sunday, Dec. 31, the New Year’s Eve telecast for both CNN and ABC aired an interracial gay kiss right as the countdown to 2024 reached its final 10 seconds. Most people were positively surprised by the networks highlighting queer love during a TV special that reaches all different kinds of audiences… but we can always count on extremely-online conservative bigots to get plucked and pressed about us just living our lives.
Jonathan Bowen, a.k.a. @BostonByBirth, shared a few insane reactions to the kiss that aired on CNN and ABC. The X-verified user wrote:
“ABC News had to cut straight to the interracial gay couple with the sloppy kiss at midnight. Is it a happy new year? Gah! It seems as though other networks showed the same kiss at midnight. The kiss wasn’t organic; the interracial gay couple was separated by crowd control barriers. This was a psychological operation which was designed to intrude on Middle America.”
Imagine thinking that two gay men kissing in New York City for New Year’s Eve is a targeted attack on Middle America. The main character syndrome is jumping out, honey.
This upset diva went on:
“I have no issue with either gay relationships or interracial relationships; that’s, obviously, not the issue. The issue? An interracial gay couple is not representative of Times Square, New York City, the [State] of New York or the United States. If the networks were going to go with the interracial gay kiss, those networks should’ve made the kiss less graphic because, honestly, it was gross.”
We have to laugh at the idea that New York City, often referred to as the “Melting Pot of America” for being a welcoming place to people of all races, sexual orientations, genders, and countries of origin, is not “properly represented” by an interracial gay couple. The jokes truly write themselves here.
It’s also insane that this very low-key kiss shown on TV for a few seconds was described as “graphic” and “gross,” as if CNN and ABC suddenly logged into Pornhub to find these guys. Just say that you don’t like seeing gay (and, apparently, also interracial) couples on television so we can all move on.
But Bowen wasn’t the only one, either. X user @kikisknees also shared a hilarious meltdown with all kinds of conspiracy theories. They wrote:
“The first kiss shown by nearly every media outlet, CNN, ABC, CBS, was this: a salacious, sickening, interracial gay tongue lashing session. Out of literal millions present, they chose this to send a message to you. They are ramping up the psyop. Nothing is by accident.”
Sidebar: gay tongue-lashing sounds hot and we’re manifesting a lot more of that for 2024.
There were also folx who had to deal with some IRL backlash to the gay kiss shown on TV. @rickyisnotfunny wrote:
“Shoutout to everyone [whose] parents were not happy at the nye gay kiss.”
And just like that, we wrap up 2023 and kick off 2024 with a casual dose of homophobia. No biggie!