Homophobia is Gay

The Colbert Report, the spin-off of and sister show to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, stars Stephen Colbert, a fake-news pundit who lives his character.   He plays an uber-patriotic conservative, who will often enough declare his anti-gay stance in politics whilst proving the opposite and showing his own homoerotic tendencies.  His character is made for comedy, a satire, so even when he seems to be completely on the right, his character will break -- proving that he is not meant to be taken seriously.  Though the character is meant to be ironic, it still mirrors many of the harsh truths of prejudice and ignorance.  

In the segment, "How to Ruin Gay Marriage", Stephen “plots” a whole plan to become engaged to a gay man, only to insult him at the altar.  Though it starts out hypothetical, one soon catches on that it is part of his character’s back-story, and, as far as the skit goes, not just an idea, but a not-so-warm memory.  He begins to cry about how the other man will never forgive him and that he’s ruined the other’s life, until: “What have I done?  ...Saved marriage, that’s what.”  He sobers up pretty quickly, the homophobic front trying to hide all traces of care for his “mere pawn”. 



Stephen is the representative of the contradiction, of sorts.  By playing a completely homophobic character, he is showing how laughable homophobia really is.  Similar to this is the idea of a homophobic homosexual, some real life examples include politicians Larry Craig, Mark Foley, Ted Haggard, and Roy Ashburn, who were all very strongly anti-gay before stumbling out of the closet through various scandals.  This brings up a stereotype found in both popular culture and in reality called the “gay conservative”, which is essentially what Colbert is playing.  Whether gay conservative or homophobic homosexual, the hypocrisy is grand and apparent, especially to those of us who are striving for equality.  



Sources:
“How to Ruin Gay Marriage”: http://www.colbertnation.com/the-colbert-report-videos/343140/august-05-2010/how-to-ruin-same-sex-marriages
Gay Conservatives: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GayConservative