Shame on Star World

If you happen to live in Asia, and if you happened to watch the 68th Golden Globe Awards on Star World, you may have noticed something.

During Jane Lynch's acceptance speech for winning best supporting actress in a comedy series, Star World muted out a word she said.  What was this awful word that Star World found offensive and necessary to protect us from?  Something dirty like "f**k" or "s**t"?  No, the word Jane Lynch said which terrified the Star World censors was the word "wife."  That's right:  wife.

Jane Lynch and her wife, Lara

For those who may not know, Jane Lynch, who plays the highly entertaining character Sue Sylvester on the smash American hit Glee, is in real life a lesbian and is happily and legally married to her wife.  During her short speech at the Golden Globes, she wished to thank her spouse for the support she's given throughout her career, just as every other married person who receives an award does.  But Jane's situation is different and "scary" because she's a woman married to a woman.  Oh Star World, your ignorance and bigotry betrays you.

Clearly this is offensive and crudely discriminatory.  Jane Lynch has just as much a right to express her gratitude to the person she loves as does anyone else.  To rudely and unabashedly mute out her use of the word "wife" was amazingly immature, prejudiced, and ignorant of Star World.

It is made even more offensive by the fact that, in 2010, Star World aired a very decent commercial in the Philippines around the time of the presidential election.  It was an advertisement for civility, was created by Star World, and it called upon peoples' better angels to hope for a better tomorrow, strive for a future without corruption, and see an end to discrimination against gays and lesbians.

Really, Star World?  Are you that hypocritical?  To say in 2010 that you hope discrimination against LGBTs will end, and then turn around and engage in blatant discrimination in 2011, is the very definition of being a hypocrite.

SHAME ON YOU, Star World.  Please grow up.  It's not 1952 anymore.

I encourage each of you reading this to send an email to Star World Asia to express your disappointment, which I have done as well.  They need to know that this type of behavior is not okay.

Main email address:  world@foxinternationalchannels.com
Email address of their PR department:  finawong@ngcasia.com

Addition:  Star World's hypocrisy goes on and on.  They recently (early March) aired a 30-minute program called The Making of Katy Perry's Firework, and in it they completely clipped out the section where Katy talks about the scene in which a young gay man works up the courage to kiss the guy he likes.  Katy also talked about how strong of a supporter she is of gay rights, and, of course, Star World put that on the censorship chopping block as well.  To add insult to injury, when the full video was shown at the end of the documentary, the network completely cut out the moment when the two young men kiss in the nightclub.

Star World, your ignorance and prejudice make me sick.  I feel so sorry for LGBT Asians, that any reference of them or acknowledgment of their existence is immediately censored, blurred, clipped, and deleted away.  You, and every other network in Asia, promote the idea that their very existence is shameful and threatening; something to be hidden and denied.

You're unprofessional, discriminatory, and, in the opinion of this heterosexual European, you're disgusting.  YOU are what's shameful; not the millions of LGBT Asians whose oppression you actively support.


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