Saturday, September 5, 2009

Top Chef without a soap box

You may remember last week when our intrepid social justice chef Ashley Merriman took to the camera all indignant like because she being gay couldn’t have a bachelorette party. Now that was not what she said but it sure felt that way.

Anywho, this week’s show had the chefs making a meal for 300 Airmen and their families. Anything from Chef Merriman on the injustice of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell? Nope. Not a word. Now here is a ridiculous, homophobic and downright disproven idea and our culinary crusader of the order of Lamdba put down her rainbow flag in order to rally around the stairs and stripes.

Please do not misunderstand this post. I love this country and am proud of the men and women who choose to fight to protect it and our interests (see what I did right there). But Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell doesn’t get the press it deserves. I mean a few weeks back the New York Times wrote a major piece on women serving in combat rolls. They shockingly have sex with their fellow soldiers and they are still able to kick ass and take names.

This fact flies in the face of the entire argument against having LGBT service personnel. The idea that they would be so distracting is a) disproven and b) just not enough to take away someone’s right to protect his or her way of life. If (and only if) our country is fighting to keep our liberty and freedoms unobstructed by extremist nut job terrorists who read just one book and then take aim to kill as many people who don’t do and think the same way as a narrow-minded reading of that book dictates, don’t you think that gay, lesbian, bisexual and trans individuals may want to pick up a gun fight back too?

ACH I say.

There was a great soap box moment for any of the gay chefs this past week and it was missed. Bravo being that LGBT safe-zone is also a controversy free safe-zone. While marriage equality is controversial it is very widely accepted in the liberal, affluent communities that make up the target audiences of Top Chef. But, talk about the troops, perhaps challenge the sitting Commander and Chief regarding promises he made on the campaign trail regarding LGBT rights, then you may face some problems. I would be interested to see the uncut interactions from Merriman and other gay chefs regarding this episode. However I would be shocked to see anything different than what came out in the final cuts.

Here, call your Senators, House member and the White House and say Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a policy that needs to change.

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