The ad promoting tourism to the U.S. seemed innocuous enough, but Family Research Council president Tony Perkins warns that the advertising campaign is being used to “highlight same-sex attractions.”
The Discover America ad highlights diversity in the US, including a song by Rosanne Cash and images of an interracial couple, two Muslim women in a city and people celebrating the Hindu festival Holi. But Perkins is peeved by its attempt “to celebrate homosexuality” by featuring a man with his arm around his partner on a bus for almost two seconds.
Perkins claimed that the ad depicts “a country of radical values and backwards priorities” for including “so much cultural baggage.” Listen:
“In 236 years, America’s never had an international tourism ad. So when Congress passed the Travel Promotion Act, people thought it’d be a great chance to highlight American attractions. What they didn’t know is that it would highlight same-sex attractions. That’s right. The commercial invites people to America-not to see the Grand Canyon, but to celebrate homosexuality.
“In one scene, a gay man is sleeping on his partner’s shoulder in a trolley. The actors said they were specifically recruited to add a ‘homosexual presence’ to the commercial. According to Brand USA, the ads were supposed to ‘open up some minds as to what America really is’ — which, based on this commercial, is a country of radical values and backwards priorities. I suppose this is part of the President’s push to “rebrand” America. It’s just too bad he used a travel ad to feature so much cultural baggage.”
You can view the ad here; the gay couple is around the 1:15 mark:
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