Billy the (gay) kid
What a Doll
by Chuck Colson
If a new toy company has its way, Barbie may never get Ken to the altar.
Totem International has
offered a rival for Kens affections. But it isnt another woman:
Its another man.
Meet Billy, Americas first gay doll. He stands thirteen inches high
with blond hair, broad shoulders,
and bulging biceps. Hes glowing with good healthand hes anatomically
correct.
As one gay businessman put it, Billy is every homosexuals little
dream guy. Billy is something else
as well: Hes a symbol of the gay lobbys dishonest public face.
Billy is the brainchild of John McKitterick, an English fashion designer
who created Billy for a
London AIDS benefit. The dolls proved so popular that McKitterick
decided to mass produce several
versions of Billy.
Theres San Francisco Billy, who wears a freedom ring to express
his gay pride. Sailor Billy is decked
out in a striped shirt and white bell bottoms. Master Billy comes
complete with black leather pants and a
harness across his chest.
McKitterick says that by selling the doll, he hopes to promote a
positive image of homosexuality.
Billy, he says, represents the image of a well-contented, adjusted
gay man of the Nineties. He
confesses that the doll makes a political statement.
But if McKitterick really wants to educate people about the realities
of gay life, hes going to have to
come up with more macabre versions of Billy.
For example, all versions of Billy ought to come with a little plastic
coffin. Researcher Paul Cameron
found that even apart from AIDS, male homosexuals have a life expectancy
of only 42 years because of
venereal disease, alcoholism, substance abuse, and suicide.
Then, of course, a realistic toymaker would produce an AIDS Billy.
Homosexuals make up only one
to two percent of the population, yet they account for 80 percent
of all AIDS cases. Instead of bulging
biceps, AIDS Billy would have a body wasted by pneumonia and chronic
diarrhea.
And what about STD Billy. Fifty percent of all gay men contract
gonorrhea.
Gays also abuse alcohol and drugs at far higher rates than heterosexuals.
Alcoholic Billy might come
with a tiny bottle of booze, while Substance Abuse Billy would have
realistic needle marks on his arms.
Of course, if a toymaker were to design dolls like these, he would
expose the tragic reality of gay life:
that most homosexuals are NOT well-contented, adjusted gay men,
as McKitterick puts it, but men
whose lives are tragically marked by disease, addiction, misery,
and early death.
McKitterick says hes planning to design a gay partner for Billy.
But if Billy is lucky, hell never meet
him. Instead, hell meet a doll named Exodus Bob, who will bring
him to Exodus International, a
Christian ministry that helps lead gays out of the homosexual lifestyle.
Thats the kind of real friend homosexuals need. What they dont
need is the false image conveyed by
a healthy, smiling doll that denies their real plight, and makes
deviancy look attractive. The only way to
give real help to gaysor to anyone, for that matteris to be brutally
honest about their condition. This
isnt harshits real love.
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