Under pressure from Philadelphia’s mayor and cardinal, marchers in the city’s annual Mummers Parade decided not to include a parody of the Scandal. The skit would have featured a float with the slogan “The Devil Made Me Do It” and people dressed as the Pope, bishops, and priests being chased by cops and, in turn, chasing boys along with nuns in a go-go cage.
A lot of outrage was directed at the attack on the Catholic Church. People, correctly, pointed out that the Catholic Church is the last politically correct object of scorn and prejudice. But I take a different tack—since when is it okay to parody sexual assault and rape? Did they give any thought to what it would do to the victims of sexual abuse?
What would be the reaction if the Mummers dressed up as rapists, hooded figures stalking women in the park? There would be so much outrage and vituperation that everyone would wonder how someone could be so stupid as to propose it in the first place. But when it’s the homosexual abuse of boys, there’s something campy and funny about it. Even Jay Leno and David Letterman are joking about it. It’s just more evidence that homosexual sympathy runs very deep in our culture.
