Boycotting Mel Gibson since 1992 | Issue Letters

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Boycotting Mel Gibson since 1992

Call me a trendsetter if you want to. I've been boycotting Mel Gibson since 1992. Now in 2006, in the wake of anti-Semitic remarks made during an arrest for suspected drunk driving, a host of organizations and individuals are calling for the actor/producer's censure. The ABC network has announced that it has canceled a planned miniseries about the Holocaust that it was developing with Gibson's Icon Productions.

Leading Hollywood film agent Ari Emanuel has issued a statement (published on HuffingtonPost.com) calling on Hollywood to stop working with Gibson. Mr. Gibson's alcohol-soaked invective shouldn't surprise anyone. Turn back the clock to 1992. In that year in an interview in Spain's El Pais newspaper, Mr. Gibson was asked what he thought of gay people, colorfully replying: "They take it up the ass." Gesturing descriptively, he continued, "This is only for taking a shit." When the interviewer recalled that Gibson previously had expressed fear that people would think he is gay because he's an actor, Gibson replied, "Do I sound like a homosexual? Do I talk like them? Do I move like them? I think not." He later defended his comments on Good Morning America saying, "Those remarks were a response to a direct question. If someone wants my opinion, I'll give it. What, am I supposed to lie to them?"

In The Man Without A Face Gibson insisted that Justin McLeod, the hero of the film, be portrayed as heterosexual, not as homosexual was was the case in the original novel. In Braveheart the depiction of the homosexual king Edward II of England as an effeminate fop and tool of sychophants pandered to every homophobic stereotype, and Gibson's portrayal of Herod Antipas in The Passion of the Christ did the same, portraying Antipas as an effeminate, makeup-wearing sybarite surrounded with 'boy-toys'.

I'm left wondering why Hollywood didn't act sooner in curtailing its economic support of this miserable little homophobe. At a time of escalating tensions in the world, the entertainment industry and the entertainment-consuming public should not idly stand by and allow Mel Gibson to get away with such tragically inflammatory statements, nor in my view should it support his productions - however artistically meritorious - that support the continued oppression of LGBT people.

People in the entertainment community, whether Jew or Gentile, gay or straight, need to demonstrate that they understand how much is at stake in this by professionally shunning this person and refusing to work with or patronize him, even if it means a sacrifice to their bottom line. I believe that the film-going public (at least that portion of it that supports equality) should boycott his films as well. If you scratch an anti-Semite, you'll very likely make a homophobe bleed, and vice-versa. Let's stop supporting our oppressors and those who are their mouthpieces. And to Mr. Gibson, in view of his 1992 remarks which remain unretracted and for which there has been no apology, I simply have to say: bend over, Mel, and assume the position - here comes justice!

William Courson
Montclair, New Jersey

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