Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Santa Claus is Coming Out – The New York Times

Plot Description for Santa Claus is Coming Out

'Santa Claus is Coming Out,' a theatrical mock-u-mentary, is about the worldwide scandal surrounding the outing of Santa Claus. Writer-performer Jeffrey Solomon traces the intensely personal struggle of the great holiday icon, as he tries to reconcile his love relationship with Italian toy maker Giovanni Geppetto with his passion for giving to the world's children. The show features more than a dozen iconic characters: among them are Sidney Green, the 'little Jew who saved Christmas;' seven year-old Gary, who asks Santa for a Sparkle Dream Princess doll; Mary Ellen, who evokes a 21st century Anita Bryant; Rudolph, elves, and many others. — EventSource - Read more The New York Times Photo Charles Dickens

(Gay) Santa Claus is Coming to Town

BY MICHAEL A. JONES

How would the world react if Santa Claus was gay, and Mrs. Claus was nothing more than a beard? Now's your chance to find out, with a new production in New York, Santa Claus is Coming Out, that creates a world in which Santa Claus is still the rosy-faced, toy-bearing hero of thousands of children; he just happens to be in love with an Italian toymaker named Giovanni. Photo Sinterklaas

Surely there's nothing wrong with asking whether Santa Claus could ever be gay, right? Well, not if you're Focus on the Family. For them, you might as well call Santa Claus a murderer. Posting on their blog Citizenlink, everyone's favorite organization that focuses a lot on persecuting gay people and very little on families, writes that the play destroys the innocence of Christmas and shows the dark side of homosexual activists.

Their reaction is kind of funny, given that Jeff Solomon -- the playwright of Santa Claus is Coming Out -- wrote the play to highlight how fearful right-wing activists are of everything LGBT. And true to form, Focus on the Family has fallen right into his hypothesis. Photo France

"The show plays out against the backdrop of the latest salvo in America's Culture Wars: the debate on providing gay role models to children," writes Solomon. "It was inspired by my research into the parents’ rights movement to keep gay issues out of the classroom." Photo Japanese

Solomon certainly had a lot of material to work with when it comes to right-wing organizations trying to keep anything LGBT-related out of the classrooms. Just look back on anti-LGBT activists in Maine and California, who said that if same-sex marriage became legal in their states, children would be forced to learn about gay marriage in Kindergarten. Or anti-gay activists who had chickens over the establishment of a Harvey Milk Day in California, fearful that children would learn about a man who inspired the LGBT rights movement... Read complete article - BY MICHAEL A. JONES

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