Ryan Murphy, creator of NBC's upcoming
comedy The New Normal, has responded to One Million Moms' call
for advertisers to avoid his new show.
One Million Moms, which has close ties
to the Christian conservative group American Family Association
(AFA), is the organization which made national headlines earlier this
year when it called on JCPenney to fire comedian Ellen DeGeneres as
the department store's spokesperson because she's openly gay.
The New Normal features
a gay couple (played by Andrew Rannells and Justin Bartha) trying to
start a family and the surrogate mother (Georgia King) who comes to
their aid.
And while the sitcom has yet to
premiere, One Million Moms is asking NBC to “drop all plans to air
the program” because it “features homosexuality in a positive
light.”
“OMM is prepared to contact any and
all sponsors of this program if it is aired,” the
group said in a blog post last week.
“NBC's The New Normal is
attempting to desensitize America and our children. It's the
opposite of how families are designed and created. You cannot
recreate the biological wheel.”
Speaking at the Television Critics
Association Summer Press Tour in Beverly Hills, Murphy addressed the
group's protest.
“If they watched the show, I actually
think they would love it,” Murphy is quoted as saying by
GregInHollywood.com.
“Because for the first time, they're represented. Ellen Barkin is
a member of that group. Which is the truth.”
“I think the show is funny, but I
think in many ways the show is about tolerance and I think it's about
a discussion of tolerance. And I think that their points of view are
delivered with sensitivity and a certain amount of ferocity by Ms.
Barkin. So, I think they would actually, if they watched it, they
would like it.”