Queer Town: Florida Legislator Seeks to Ban Gay TV and Film Characters
Categories: Media, Queer Town
If you want to make a movie or TV show on the cheap in Florida, state legislator Stephen Precourt says you can't feature gay characters.
According to Miami New Times (our sister paper) and the Associated Press, Precourt is offering a new, tax incentives bill for the entertainment industry. As part of that legislation, Hollywood can only get the extra dough if gay content is banned from a project shot in Florida.
Precourt gives the Associated Press a phony-baloney line about not targeting gays, saying he simply believes public dollars shouldn't be invested in homosexuality.
In the meantime, we hope GLAAD, the gay media watchdog group, starts up a campaign that puts Hollywood on notice, and keeps the studios and networks from chasing the buck while ditching the gays.
Kyle Munzenrieder of Miami New Times adds: "Besides not offering tax breaks to films that 'exhibit or implied act' of non-traditional family values, films with gratuitous violence would also be left out.
"In recent years, Florida has slipped from third in the country in terms of film production, only behind California and New York, to out of the top ten. Other states have aggressively offered more generous tax credits."
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
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| Sean Penn stars as gay rights icon Harvey Milk in 2008. |
According to Miami New Times (our sister paper) and the Associated Press, Precourt is offering a new, tax incentives bill for the entertainment industry. As part of that legislation, Hollywood can only get the extra dough if gay content is banned from a project shot in Florida.
Precourt gives the Associated Press a phony-baloney line about not targeting gays, saying he simply believes public dollars shouldn't be invested in homosexuality.
In the meantime, we hope GLAAD, the gay media watchdog group, starts up a campaign that puts Hollywood on notice, and keeps the studios and networks from chasing the buck while ditching the gays.
Kyle Munzenrieder of Miami New Times adds: "Besides not offering tax breaks to films that 'exhibit or implied act' of non-traditional family values, films with gratuitous violence would also be left out.
"In recent years, Florida has slipped from third in the country in terms of film production, only behind California and New York, to out of the top ten. Other states have aggressively offered more generous tax credits."
Contact Patrick Range McDonald at pmcdonald@laweekly.com.
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