Posted by giveawayboy on October 04, 2003 at 01:54:46:
In Reply to: Nightmare posted by quequel on October 03, 2003 at 23:58:16:
Wow, I have a strange feeling about those 'hell-house' places. I'm not sure whether or not you liked it from your description, but I'm glad you went gothed out. Anyway, I think alot of time we use something wonderful like Hall-O-ween to push our cause, like playing on the fears of people. Still, I think that a church has the right to do a 'hell-house' if it wants. I'm just not sure I like the concept. I'm not able to give my own feedback from NIGHTMARE since I didn't go to it, but I am not sure I'd last really long there. I think I'd most likely be bored or irritable. So, best not for me to go. I'd rather go to a spookhouse, which actually has skeletons and ghosts and the what-not. I'd be more into a pumpkin patch somewhere with a grinning scarecrow and a couple black cats.
That to me is more the Hall-O-ween I'm used to. I also don't feel that going straight into core issues like a son's homosexuality is the best way to deal with issues that feed right into the identity of who people are, or at least who struggling teenagers might perceive themselves to be. I'm really, REALLY wary of that kind of thing. Plus, I'm d***ed sick and tired of the gay guy always being portrayed as promiscuous, predatory or suicidal, or let's face it, the victim of violence. You can see this pattern in LOTS of books and films. I don't want to see it repeated on a Hall-O-ween outing. The fact of suicide among gays is tragic and hopefully will lessen. I think the more younger gay people see such images of gay men or women they will continually equate their sexual orientation with unecessary confusion and pain. Let's face it, being gay and Christian already puts you in a very sensitive place. I do not subscribe to the idea, FORCED by some, that a sexual orientation is chosen. Therefore I do not believe that parents make their children gay. I think any 'hell-house' that deals with gays in this way is doing a dual disservice. First, they rob their communities of the wonderful spookiness and FUN of Hall-O-ween and then as a follow up they substitute it with a degrading image of a gay teenager. This is like a double slap in the face.