Posted on 04/26/2012 5:00:57 AM PDT by IbJensen
MEDINA, OHIO, April 24, 2012, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A long-running, nationally syndicated comic strip will feature a homosexual couple holding hands and attending the prom together.
“Funky Winkerbean” will depict two men holding hands as they buy tickets at the fictional Westview High School.
“So, who are you guys taking to the prom, anyway?” asks a young female ticket seller. “Uh, that would be each other,” they reply.
The comic is featured in 400 newspapers nationwide.
“Dealing with intolerance is something I’ve dealt with many times before. Adding the gay angle is just a twist to the topic,” said strip creator Tom Batiuk (pronounced “Battick”), 63.
However, in December 2009, Batiuk featured six comic strips about the “bullying” of homosexual character Cody.
“I’m not trying to shock anyone,” Batiuk stated. “I’m just telling a story.”
The strip, which celebrated its 40th anniversary last month, joins a growing number of homosexual characters in juvenile literature.
Archie comic book character Kevin Keller “married” his boyfriend in the January 2012 issue.
Archie Comics CEO Jon Goldwater said the introduction of the first openly homosexual character into the world of Jughead, Betty, and Veronica in September 2010 was “just about keeping the world of Archie Comics current and inclusive. Archie’s hometown of Riverdale has always been a safe world for everyone.”
One Million Moms, a project of the American Family Association, asked for members to contact Toys ‘R’ Us stores to prevent the issue’s display in front of an impressionable young audience. “Unfortunately, children are now being exposed to same-sex marriage in a toy store,” the organization’s press release said. “This is the last place a parent would expect to be confronted with questions from their children” about sexual orientation.
The homosexual teen storyline was opposed by co-CEO Nancy Silberkleit, a former third grade teacher. She and Goldwater are locked in a legal battle for control of the comic empire.
Jon Goldwater – who is distantly related to Barry Goldwater – wants to “update” the message to expand its earnings potential. He has discussed creating a Hollywood film about Archie with help from Rahm Emanuel’s brother, Ari, a Hollywood “super agent” who called for a Hollywood boycott of Mel Gibson in 2006.
The comic book’s new direction is a far cry from the example of Jon’s father and company founder John L. Goldwater, who reveled in the comic’s wholesome image. Although Jewish, he allowed the Archie characters to be used in Christian-themed comic books for a fee. Christian Spire Comics created 18 faith-themed Archie issues from 1973-1982. “That was a really nice piece of business for a long time,” said Michael Silberkleit, who ran the company from 1983 until his death in 2008.
A Christian Archie comic from the 1970s.
Neither Archie nor “Funky Winkerbean” is the first comic strip to feature an LGBT character. In 1993, Lynn Johnston’s “For Better or Worse” revealed the character Lawrence was a homosexual.
Batiuk said “the younger generation’s attitudes toward gays,” though “not perfect,” are “more open and accepting than their predecessors.”
“It shows promise for an emerging generation that will bring this issue [of acceptance of open homosexuality in high schools] to an end.”
“This [strip] is a pretty straight-forward expression of how I feel about the subject,” he said.
The comic strip featuring the couple will run on April 30.
what is meant by the comment that young people's attitudes towards gays aren't "perfect"? I suppose the only acceptable thing would be for all teens to love and embrace the gay lifestyle for them to be satisfied with the young people's attitudes? Ain't gonna happen, so forget it. No matter how it is pushed in our faces, it will never be a societal "norm".
The only reason these people think the youth is more "open and accepting" is because its been crammed down there throats and if you don't validate and EMBRACE this perverted lifestyle, you are nothing but a low life "homophobe". Homosexuality will eventually be the downfall of this once great nation. It is all predicted in the Bible. This country is in a very sad, bad place in history.
depraved
Funky Winkerbean turned into a soap opera strip about ten years ago and now it looks like Archie is following suit. In each case it’s about creatively bankrupt ‘creators’ trying to generate cheap drama and headlines because thats easier than making people laugh.
Never heard of it. 400 newspapers and it isn’t in NYC? Odd.
The Gaystapo is powerful. Sickening beyond any doubt.
How ironic, I remember outrage over MAD Magazine’s parody of Riverdale, “Starchie Standrews” where the 1950’s hero indulged in smoking, hinted at drinking, bullied freshmen & sold them school `passes’, then bumped off his rival Wedgie Van Smelt. His girlfriends Salonica & Biddy shot heroin and had zit ridden faces. Of course, Starchie paid for his crimes with life imprisonment in reform school.
Even that’s mild compared to today’s forced gay acceptance.
Next we will see Batman having sex with Robin.
And Wonder Woman dining at the Y.
Calvin and Hobbes
Peanuts
Bloom County
Dilbert
Far Side
No one make humorous and quality strips like this anymore.
All the rest are complete garbage, with far too many of them trying to sneak in crap like “gay prom dating”.
I haven't read theat strip in a decade at least. Then again, I don't read the paper anymore, either. We only get it so my mom can read the obituaries.
“Dealing with intolerance is something I’ve dealt with many times before”
It doesn’t sound like that he is tolerant of intolerance
this would be a significant news item if anybody out there still read the funny pages in dead-tree newspapers...
Amazing the lengths a comic strip with with the word “Funky” in the title will go to to seem current......
Does anyone read Funky Winkerbean? I never understood the strips that give you three seconds of dramatic content per day (like Apartment 3-G, FW, etc.)
Speaking of Wonder Woman, Superman was flying all around, looking for something to do. Using his superpower vision, he could see Wonder Woman sunning herself nude by her swimming pool. He thought, “I can make myself invisible, pay her a visit and be gone in a flash and she won’t know what hit her.”
So he did it. Wonder Woman’s eyes flew open and said, “My word! What was that??!!”
The Invisible Man said, “I don’t know, but my hiney sure hurts!”
That’s so gay.
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