A conservative activist claims to be in a “tricky predicament”
because he was moved by a gay marriage proposal on the season
premiere on ABC's Modern Family.
On Wednesday's premiere of the show's fifth season, gay dads
Mitchell Pritchett (played by openly gay Jesse Tyler Ferguson) and
Cameron Tucker (Eric Stonestreet) got engaged.
The television couple has been together eight years and is raising
an adopted daughter. Writers on the show used the resumption of gay
and lesbian weddings in California over the summer to push the story
forward.
Media Research Center's Evan Mantel wrote that he was moved by the
episode, which makes the sitcom dangerous.
“As a conservative blog on entertainment, I'm in a tricky
predicament during episodes like these,” Mantel
wrote.
“[T]his was a good episode. I laughed. I cried. I felt. It moved
me like good art is supposed to do. But that's the problem. It moved
me. It made me feel joy for Cam and Mitchell after the Supreme Court
over-ruled California's Prop 8.”
“And that is what makes this show great. And dangerous. It
relies on feelings which mislead. There is no logical argument in
favor of gay marriage, but the sweetness of Cam and Mitchell trying
to outdo each other's proposal is touching. Their simple and
spontaneous proposal was as sweet as the portrayal of those who don't
agree with gay marriage as spitting babies was subtle.”
“So what is a person to do?”
“Watch, I say. Watch a classic sitcom, but know that what you
are seeing is fiction and not a realistic portrayal of realty.”
(Related: Modern
Family returns for fifth season with gay marriage proposal.)