I’ve spent a lot of virtual ink talking about the “kiss cam” at ballparks and arenas and the like. I hate it for two reasons: first, it’s kind of stupid. Second — and way more importantly to me — it’s so often employed as a means of spreading casual homophobia. The operator thinks it’s cute to put it on two guys — presumably heterosexual guys — in order to get hoots and hollers from the crowd and to sow homphobic discomfort.
They apparently did it last night at Angels Stadium, because A’s pitcher Brandon McCarty took notice:
They put two guys on the ‘Kiss Cam’ tonight. What hilarity!! (by hilarity I mean offensive homophobia). Enough with this stupid trend.
— Brandon McCarthy (@BMcCarthy32) April 19, 2012
Damn straight.
Go back to the thread on gay ballplayers yesterday and revisit the comments about how homophobia is still more or less accepted in our culture. If you doubt it, ask yourself how a publicly funded and operated ballpark can still get away with doing a thing, the sole purpose of which is to make tens of thousands of people laugh at the possibility that two men might actually want to kiss. And which encourages straight people to either be humiliated or to pretend to be the part of a minority and to try to act how they think that minority acts in comically exaggerated ways.
It’s pathetic, and I wish ballparks would cut it the hell out.