There’s an interesting brouhaha going on in the California Theater community. The Sacremento Bee reports:
Gay and lesbian artists called Monday for an artistic and audience boycott of California Musical Theatre after learning that its artistic director donated $1,000 to a campaign that backed banning gay marriage in California.
Scott Eckern was not available for comment Monday as the revelation has gained stunning momentum on the blogosphere. The California Musical Theatre produces the Music Circus, presents Broadway Sacramento, and recently opened “Forever Plaid” at the capital’s newest performing venue, the Cosmopolitan Cabaret.
Richard Lewis, the organization’s executive producer, said the board of directors will conduct an emergency meeting on the matter this afternoon. He said it was too early to tell how this would affect Eckern’s 25-year employment with California Musical Theatre.
This is interesting to me, because I always understood that the conventional wisdom on the Hollywood blacklist of the 50s was that it was supposed to be a bad thing, where people were denied work due to their political beliefs. How is this different? Yes, the government isn’t involved, but the situations have a lot of similarity. It’ll be interesting to see what happens next.
UPDATE: He apologized, but then still resigned when a boycott was being organized.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jason // Nov 12, 2008 at 5:21 pm
You know, this whole california gay marriage thing has me a little wierded out. On the one hand, it’s ridiculous to me that it wouldnt be legal. It’s ridiculous, frankly, that it’s even an issue up for discussion. Marry who you want, who CARES? ??? ?
BUT….in this case….the people of California have spoken…have they not? I mean, say what you want, unprecedented amounts of black and latino voters at the polls (who historically are anti-gay), shady big money backers of banning gay marriage, whatever….but in the end, isnt it enough that the people have spoken?
2 pax // Nov 12, 2008 at 5:36 pm
Yep, exactly. It’s interesting that Obama’s coattails may be the reason that Prop 8 passed.
My personal belief is that the government shouldn’t certify marriages at all. If they wanted to give a tax break to couples raising children, they could have a civil union type thing I guess, but I think that marriage itself should be left up to the people involved and whatever their church’s position is.
It’s interesting to watch though, with the Hollywood blacklist parallels and the gay protesters outside black churches. It’s only going to get even uglier, and Obama will have to say something about it eventually. No matter what he says on the topic, someone is gonna be pissed off. I can’t wait.
3 pax // Nov 12, 2008 at 5:38 pm
And for the record, if the government had been left out, I would have had no problem with the 50s blacklist. If Hollywood producers didn’t want to hire followers of a murderous totalitarian ideology, that would be their right.
4 Jason // Nov 13, 2008 at 5:55 pm
People should be able to hire whoever they want. it’s my company, shouldnt i have the only say in who i hire without worrying that some civil rights group is going to call me a racist just because a better qualified white male was hired over an african american female?
the problem with the 50’s blacklist though is that there were SO MANY PEOPLE on that list that were not deserving of it. A rumor starts, then all of a sudden you’re blacklisted.
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