OK, kiddo! Here are all the fantastically amazing posts tagged with Breakfast With Scot
Lobbyist: No Tax Credits For Adorable Gay Comedy
Breakfast With Scot, an unbelievably sweet comedy about a closeted gay couple who unexpectedly finds themselves raising a bubbly 11-year old boy, is under attack once again by anti-gay lobbyists.
Previously, the Canadian Family Action Coalition led a boycott of the NHL over the film, which licensed the Toronto Maple Leafs logo. The boycott wasn’t very successful. (Go Habs!)
This time, though, Charles McVety, a spokesperson for the group, is seeking government intervention. He singled out the family comedy as being one that would have all its tax credits revoked by the government if Bill C-10, which is currently in front of the senate, were to pass into law. The bill seeks to deny tax credits to films after they’ve been produced if the content is found to be “objectionable.”
McVety—who previously claimed responsibility for Bill C-10, but has since backpeddled—summarized Breakfast With Scot as a film about “an 11-year-old boy who is being raised by a homosexual Toronto Maple Leaf to be a homosexual.”
Ignoring, for a moment, that the notion that someone can be raised to be homosexual is rejected completely by the psychological, medical, and academic community, I’m amazed by this misclassification. Either McVety has never seen the film, or he is lying about what he saw.
I had the privilege to see Breakfast with Scot last autumn in attendance with the director, producers, and its young star. It was a sweet, family comedy about a closeted hockey star and his lawyer husband who like to keep their lives discreet. They suddenly find themselves caring for a tragically orphaned 11-year-old, who enjoys cooking, dressing up in feather boas, singing Christmas carols in summer, and drawing exactly the sort of attention that his new guardians like to avoid. I won’t ruin the story, but to describe the film as anything but a gentle holiday comedy with strong, moral themes is dishonest.
Still, McVety has targeted and seeks to punish this film because the guardian characters are gay—a point central to the film’s comedic premise. “We are objecting to films that proselytize young people into homosexuality,” he told reporters. Laurie Lynd, the filmmaker, was stunned, adding that if the movie’s tax credits were revoked, it “could have killed the film completely.”
McVety has said multiple times that Bill C-10 is about ending the funding of pornography with tax dollars. That’s not what he’s demonstrating, especially since policies are already in place to prevent that. Instead, this bill is about revoking tax credits (not even funding) from any films that disagree with McVety’s ideology—and after they’ve been made, to boot. With this broad definition of what constitutes an objectionable film, and with an after-the-fact process, Bill C-10 will force filmmakers to reconsider producing anything with content as edgy as, well, a gay couple.
Sigh. Maybe I’ll just produce Slap Upside The Head: The Animated Film stateside.
- Activist decries tax break for gay comedy [Toronto Star]
- Rightwing activist decries tax credits for gay film [Xtra]
- Film tax credit proposal falls short, evangelist says [Globe and Mail]
Screening Breakfast With Scot
Hey kids! I’m on the other side of the country for a little while to defend my master’s thesis, so I’m posting my very first Road Slap today! (For the astute, a Road Slap is just like any other post on this site, but thanks to soul-sucking jetlag, lacks illustrations or humour of any kind.)
While leafing through my usual news stories, I caught a handful promoting Breakfast With Scot. The Canadian-produced comedy film is a sweet tale about a closeted gay couple, each with “manly” sports professions, that unexpectedly becomes the guardians to a sissy and flamboyant 11-year old boy. Actor Tom Cavanagh shared what I thought were some nice insights into what the story is about:
I like the central conceit of the story. These two fellas who draw no attention to their private lives and sexual orientation are put in a position where they have to look after this young boy who doesn’t really understand what it means to be gay or straight, who is just being himself.
The story has been praised by reviewers, described as a film that that “celebrate[s] the uniqueness of children, and how they can teach adults.”
The anti-gay lobby, on the other hand, has burst capillaries over the movie’s production. Their reaction has been as funny as it is illogical: Both the Canadian Family Action Coalition and the American-based Americans For Truth Against Homosexuality started a public boycott of the NHL (whose Toronto Maple Leaf’s logo was licensed for the film), and bombared Richard Peddie—president of the Leaf’s—with emails he called “raw,” “live,” and “disappointing.” Brian Rushfeldt, head of CFAC, even went on record with this batty rant:
[The NHL’s endorsement of the film] is the epitome of almost evil intent. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the entire situation is that an 11-year-old boy is being promoted as a poster child for gay sex.
I’ve already made light of the phenomenal leaps of logic required to reach this conclusion, but considering that the lobbyists’ NHL boycott has failed so completely, I think it’s demonstrative of what the anti-gay industry has become: a cantankerous, disconnected minority.
So, for those available to see Sunday’s screening (6:30 pm Scotiabank 1 in Toronto), go and enjoy film; for those that aren’t, enjoy the NHL season. Others have tried to use their muscle, however atrophied, to ensure you would do neither.
- Tom Cavanagh [NOW Magazine]
- Film fest: Breakfast with Scot [Xtra]
NHL Harassed, Boycotted By Anti-Gay Lobby
Hey, remember Brian Rushfeldt of the Canadian Family Action Coalition? In December, Brian called on Canadians to boycott hockey because of what he called the NHL’s promotion “of an 11-year-old boy as the poster child for gay sex.”
Now, what Brian was actually refering to is an independent film entitled Breakfast With Scot, which licensed the Toronto Maple Leafs’ logo from the NHL. The film, which just finished shooting, is about a macho hockey player whose life is transformed when he and his gay partner become the guardian of an 11-year-old boy. Paul Brown, the producer, described the comedy as a “crowd pleaser in the spirit of Billy Elliot or About a Boy—movies that celebrate the uniqueness of children, and how they can teach adults.”
Although this is enough to give Rushfeldt a hernia, the hockey boycott isn’t going quite as well as planned. As a result, the anti-gay lobby appears to have switched to Plan B, teaming together with other lobbyists to start an email campaign harassing the Leafs’ president, Richard Peddie. Americans for Truth, a US-based anti-gay organisation, even posted Peddie’s email address online, flooding his mailbox with what he called “raw,” “live,” and “dissapointing” emails.
Former team captain, Rick Vaive, said that both the Canadian Family Action Coalition and Americans for Truth need to “get over it:”
It is time people realized that [homosexuality] is part of real life. It doesn’t matter what the colour of your skin is, or what your sexual preference is, or what your religious beliefs are—we all have to get along. So get over it.
Well put! Though, personally, I’d have liked to see the hockey boycott continue. Given the right resources, I’m sure that lobbyists could have convinced Canadians to embrace an exciting new national pastime: Jesus Ball.
- Leafs brass face backlash for “promoting” homosexuality [National Post]
Lobby Group Flips Out Over Gay NHL Film
The Toronto Maple Leafs logo will be used in an upcoming film entitled Breakfast with Scot, the NHL announced last week. The film is a comedy about a gay ex-Leaf and his partner (the team’s lawyer) whose lives change when they become the guardians of an 11-year-old boy.
To the surprise of none, Brian Rushfeldt—spokesperson for the right-wing special interest group Canadian Family Action Coalition—nearly blew an eye vessel:
[The NHL's endorsement] is the epitome of almost evil intent. Perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the entire situation is that an 11-year-old boy is being promoted as a poster child for gay sex.
I think we are definitely going to call upon Canadians and fans to have these people pay some price for this ludicrous business decision that they just made.
So… Brian wants Canadian hockey fans to boycott the NHL—our national pastime—because an independently produced comedy about a gay hockey player has licensed the Leafs logo? Yes, yes, the logic is flawless: The NHL is exploiting an 11-year-old child to promote gay sex. With evil intent.
Well, Canadians—you heard the man! Stop watching hockey.
- Activist Predicts Hockey Fans Will Body Check NHL Leafs [WDC Media]
- Leafs allow logo in comedy about gay hockey player [Globe and Mail]
