Family Day at Fenway marred by Queer Eye?

If anyone is interested on Tuesday, The ''Queer Eye" season premiere will feature Damon, Varitek, Millar, Tim Wakefield, and Doug Mirabelli. Filmed in Fort Myers, Fla., during spring training, the makeovers helped raise money for charity. The players, in submitting to the spa treatments and wardrobe upgrades, raised $100,000 in donations and corporate sponsorships to rebuild a Florida Little League team's hurricane-damaged fields. In turn, the Red Sox invited the ''Queer Eye" team to Fenway to publicize the TV show.

I agree. It is a difficult thing for a parent to explain the diffrences in sexuality to a child who doesnt even know the meaning of the word sex..
I thought that family days were never about 'tv stars' and always about the game? You know, food discounts, cheaper tickets, mascot games on the field..etc?

Welcome to the new world order.

Aw, it's not hard. We talked about this a lot re: "Postcards from Buster."

That said, "lots of different kinds of families" is easier than "what does 'queer' mean?" Strange pairing, Queer Eye on family day.

shewolfn - to be honest I do not think it was an official "family day" as in any sort of promotion. It is just that typically Sunday games - seeing they are usually early afternoon games are considered "family days" (more familes attending) seeing it is a day game whereas typically on other days of the week the games usually start late afternoon to early evening.

sozobe - I think the Buster thing is easier as they really didn't say anything about being gay/queer - only showed that the kid had two mommies. Usually for little kids the simpler you keep it the better.

I suppose if my child asked, I would simply leave it that Queer is just part of the name of the show. My six year old frequently asks what a word means. I guess I could always give the original meaning of the word.

I fail to get the connection between watching a guy throw a baseball and having to explain "queer" to your kids.

It's not like he's out there giving some speech on gayness.

Indeed.

I'm assuming that there would be some, "And now, from 'Queer Eye for the Straight Guy'..."

But yeah, still several steps between that and "what's 'queer', Mama?" And hardly the only way it would come up.

I'm marginally "huh" if it was explicitly family day, if it's just some random game during the day, then I'm firmly in shrug territory.

I normally agree Boomerang - but they announce where these guys are from when introducing them - Queer Eye for the Straight Guy - most people sort of shrugged it also, but many were upset.

Personally it does not bother me and if my child asked, I would just give her an explanation like I said before, however I can understand in this circumstance how some parents could be upset.

Child asks: "What is 'queer'?"

Answer. "Some grownup men love grown up women and some grown up men love grown up men." If the interest seems to be there, move on to the loves of grown up women.

Thirty second explanation and then we're back to baseball.

If you want to shield your child from the real world, don't take your child out in the real world.

Is Homosexual Love so powerfully evil that a thirty second explanation will damage your kid forever? Nonsense.

This is the perfect reply to all those who wish to censor the world.

Noddy - although I do not have an issue with gays - I support same sex marriage - being tolerant also means being tolerant of others beliefs. Some people because of their beliefs feel that gay relationships are wrong. For them to explain to a very young child about how grownup men love other grownup men is just not right.

I do believe you should shield your child from the real world on certain subjects until they are old enough to handle the subject manner. For example in the real world people kill other people, people have sex with other people, people abuse animals, and other ugly things. However, I am not going to expose my young child to these facts until they are of an appropriate age. So even though gays and sex is part of the real world, some parents may not think that this appropriate for young children.

The "I don't want to explain it to my kids" argument is just plain stupid.

If kids aren't old or mature enough to handle it, they won't ask. Eventually we all have to deal with the fact that people have sex.

My eleven year old son is a bit uncomfortable realizing where his new baby sister came from. The realization that his mom and I have sex is unescapable at his age and level of education.

He brought this up in a round-about way a little while ago. When I started to answer his question, he quickly shut me off. So I told him that he was allowed to ask any question, and most of them I would answer, but that I wouldn't explain anything that he didn't ask about.

I feel strongly that this is just good parenting. Kids know what they are ready to hear, and what they don't want to know yet. Trying to keep knowledge of the world from children, when they are mature enough to ask for it, breeds ignorance.

Just my son needs to deal with the fact (which now shocks him) that people in the world have sex, people also need to deal with the fact that some people have gay sex. That's is part of the cost of living in the real world.

The issue here is not the level of maturity of young children who may not be able to deal with sex...

The issue is the immaturity of adults who can't accept that someone may have a fulfilling reationship different than theirs.

The point being here is how would you answer what does queer mean? If I child has no clue it has to do with sex, then where does maturity come into play here?

If a three year old heard the word "f*ck and asked what it meant, would you give them the true meaning? It is people having sex? Since they are old enough to ask what does this word mean in your logic, then they are old enough to hear an explaination of sex. No, you would probably say as most reasonable parents would, it is a bad word or something along those lines.

If my young child said something about what does queer mean after hearing at the baseball game, I would say - it is just part of the name of the show. If she asked about a child with parents of the same sex, I would simply explain that there are all sorts of families and sometimes children have two mommies that take care of them. Keep it at their level. There really would be no need to get that involved at her age.

However, when she starts being of the age to realize about sex, that is a different story as it should be for any parent whether they believe gay relationships are wrong or right. I would think even more important for parents to discuss if they do not believe in such relationships.

I don't know why a parent couldn't answer with the dictionary definition of "queer" which is "unconventional".

I agree with you likat - if you don't talk to your kids about stuff you can rest assured that someone else will - if you want to try to influence your kids perceptions you'd better darn well be the first one they talk to about it.

As far as the actual situation, I bet there wasn't a kid at the stadium who asked "what's queer?" Ok, well MAYBE, but unlikely. It's not a big deal, and the only people it offended were those who don't like gays.

Why? Because it wasn't a huge show they put on, they threw out a first pitch, which takes a minute, tops. People are sitting down, and the announcer probably introduced the names of the guys from the show "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy." Half the seats are empty at this point anyway.

If a kid asked at this situation, and he was too young to start telling what gay guys do, I'd say "it's just a name of a show," and leave it at that. Then again, I don't have kids, so what do I know?

Or just tell them Michael Jackson is queer and leave it at that.

Definitely.

btw, as a postscript to the Buster stuff and related to this:

The other day sozlet went to her best friend's house. I'll call her Dolly. They were playing dress-up, and Dolly put on a bride outfit. Sozlet asked for a groom outfit, but there wasn't one. So sozlet put on another white dress and said, "That's OK, we'll both be brides. Ladies can marry each other, you know."

This was a drop-off day, so the above was related to me by Dolly's mom, with not a little trepidation -- she had just agreed with sozlet, and wanted to know what I thought. I was like, "Cool!" She was relieved... evidently she knows a lot of people who would be upset about it.

Er, the "definitely" was directed at Boomer's post, but I do agree with pretty much all but the Michael Jackson thing from Slappy. (Though even that has a certain logic...) Especially, that it wouldn't cause a bunch of conversations.

Bats and balls, slaps on the ass, stealing bases, getting to third base and scoring, the long ball, popups, fast balls, diving grabs, screw balls, the bash bros, what's not to love? It's all gay.