The Florida Family association holds goals of improving the moral environment of America. They are currently taking on the hit ABC Family teen drama series Pretty Little Liars. The show has featured Emily (played by Shay Mitchell) who is an athlete, good student, and a lesbian. Since the show has began Emily has had 3 relationships with other females, roughly the same amount of dating partners as the other three Liars. The FFA does not feel it's right to target a show that features homosexual characters towards teenagers. They are asking advertisers to pull from the show, and reporting that some advertisers are indeed pulling because of that reason (however some such as General Mills announced that the decision had nothing to do with The FFA or having a lesbian character).
Last year you may remember reading a simaler story about The FFA targeting Canadian based teen drama series Degrassi. Degrassi garnered praise for showcasing different LGBT characters through it's generations of high school. The FFA did not find it realistic that a quarterback could be gay, or a straight girl would date a transgendered boy. (Fans eventually found out Fiona's character was a lesbian for the record). The FFA also claimed Kodak pulled due to gay propaganda, but Kodak assured the public that they had not pulled from Degrassi.
The FFA does tend to get certain facts wrong, saying such things as Degrassi focusing on gay teen Riley (who is actually featured little compared to the other 20+ of the main cast). Also saying that Pretty Little Liars has featured 3 lesbian main characters (Emily is the only lesbian of the main characters, her girlfriends have only been recurring).
Some viewers may be worried as we know that The Parent's Television Council had a hand in getting Skins US off the air, but that was focusing more on "child pornography" claims.
How do you feel about the Florida Family association? Are they right in their choices to attempt getting these shows off the air? Or are they wrong to try and hide something as real as homosexuality?
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